Amit Sela & Co., Law Office and Notary

Amit Sela & Co., Law Office and Notary is a boutique law firm which is characterized by vast professional knowledge, tailored service and high and immediate  availability. The firm handles the full range of real estate matters in Israel and abroad, and is reputed as a firm which is highly esteemed by its clients, public entities, institutes, private entities and developers, including in aspects of legal representation in the courts, appeal committees, the Supervisor of Multioccupancy Houses, mediations and arbitrations.

The firm is headed by Adv. Amit Sela, a legal professional with more than 18 years of experience in the practice areas of real estate and urban renewal. The firm is distinct in the number of transactions that it accompanies and their complexity, and Adv. Sela himself personally advises every client throughout the entire process, and all of the transaction or project stages. 

Practice Areas

Real Estate, Urban Renewal and Planning and Zoning - The firm accompanies its clients in all types of real estate activities and aspects as well as in handling complex and large-scale transactions, both in Israel and abroad. The firm has been handling transactions of yielding properties, property sales and purchases, rentals, urban renewal – Pinui-Binui and Tama 38 (of all types), commercial real estate (shopping malls, commercial centers, office buildings etc.), purchasing groups, assisted living, asset-swap and shared properties transactions, construction development, residential plots and construction (including luxury residences), real estate cooperatives, planning and zoning, construction permits, complete facilitation and handling of real estate investment corporations. The firm also handles related litigation (in courts and arbitrations) and has a unique specialization in accompanying real estate transactions in Portugal. Over the year, Adv. Sela recorded a considerable share in the legal facilitation of some of the largest real estate projects and transactions of various commercial companies, entrepreneurs, property owners, holding companies, banks, development companies and private developers.

Handling the Properties Departments of Investment Companies - Another aspect of the firm’s activity is legal support for the properties and investments departments of large real estate and investment entities (including insurance companies) in every matter that relates to the ongoing management of their properties across Israel, such as negotiating in agreements, drafting appendices to agreements, managing and conducting meetings, registering properties, and also in their real estate transactions, which are usually of a very large magnitude. Adv. Sela also serves in this capacity as the external legal counsel of Migdal Insurance Company and other insurance companies as well as diverse public and institutional entities. The firm handles construction projects from end to end, starting from the due diligence and the land acquisition transaction, with an emphasis on the transaction structure, accompanying through the project’s preparation and planning stages including correspondence vis-à-vis the authorities, contracting with various service providers, handling contracting with apartment buyers, handling various ongoing issues of the projects and registering the rights and the multioccupancy houses.

Unique Expertise in Urban Renewal Transactions (Pinui-Binui and Tama 38) and Asset-Swap (“Combination”) Transactions - The firm handles large Pinui-Binui projects across Israel and dozens of Tama 38 and combination transactions. Urban renewal serves as a major growth driver in Israel’s real estate markets, and has a tremendous importance that would only grow stronger with time, in light of the need to rejuvenate the city centers and transform the existing urban texture. Adv. Sela has been active in this field for many years and has been accompanying, for more than 15 years, transactions of this type, ever since the ‘birth’ of Tama 38 (late 2005 and 2006). In this framework, Adv. Sela has developed unique professional skill, all while providing personal service with a particularly high level of availability. Since these transactions are unique and complex, and require vast legal knowledge, the integrates several practice areas, the department specializes in providing the legal counsel and correctly emphasizing the right aspects of each transaction from the beginning of the negotiations and up to the registrations of rights of the new apartments in the Land Registrar Chamber. The firm has vast experience in representing residents in projects with a special emphasis and the maintenance of service-orientation, while remaining accessible through all types of communication channels and in person.

Representing Developers and Residents - The vast experience that Adv. Amit Sela accumulated throughout the years, in representing on the one hand developers and on the other hand residents (in separate transactions) provides him with the knowledge, the familiarity and the understanding of the economic and legal interests of the main players in every urban renewal transaction. All while providing special counsel to the developers and the property owners and responding to the owners’ concerns, handling and responding to the requirements of the planning authorities etc. The firm’s professional team provides a complete solution across the entire representation process, starting from negotiations, through the representation before the tax authorities and the mortgage banks, and up to the registration of the new apartments in the Land Registrar Chambers. The professional team is highly experienced, has vast knowledge that was acquired, inter alia, in projects that have been completed with the new apartments that were delivered to the end buyers.

Notable Projects

Some of the notable projects that were handled by the firm include the acquisition of a shopping mall in Jerusalem in NIS 130 million, legal facilitation of merger transactions and management of the properties of Psagot, Altshuler Shaham and Harel Insurance Company, selling the Dizengoff Center Mall in Tel Aviv – a NIS 300 million transaction; The acquisition of the G Mall in Kfar Saba in a NIS 350 million transaction, including all of the acquisition’s stages and expanding its area (including facilitating a business system for the partner); Sales and acquisitions of commercial centers in Israel – Afula, Rishon LeZion, Pardes Hanna and more, accompanying construction projects across Israel with hundreds of apartments, the acquisition of the Comverse Ra’anana complex including the legal support and drafting the documents for the construction of the building and renting it to Comverse – a NIS 250 million deal; Handling dozens of real estate transactions in the segments of offices, hotels, commerce (commercial areas, industry, parking garages and more) at scopes of NIS hundreds of millions, legal support to purchasing groups (formerly and currently) with hundreds of apartments including in Judea and Samaria, handling assisted living / residential clusters (state immigration absorption centers) and more.