During the years 2009-2010 (on average), among 431,000 residents of Jerusalem aged 20 and above, 262,000 (61%) lived in apartments they owned, and 133,000 (31%) lived in rented apartments. The rest had other living arrangements, such as an apartment belonging to a family member or friend. The percentage of renters in Jerusalem was comparable to the figure for Haifa (30%), higher than the figure for Israel (23%), and lower than the figure for Tel Aviv-Jaffa (41%). 
 

As expected, the percentage of renters is not the same across the age groups. The highest percentage was measured among Jerusalem residents aged 20-29, of whom 42% lived in rentals, much higher than the figure for Israel (29%). As age increases, the percentage of renters decreases, but while the percentage of renters among residents aged 30-39 (40%) was only slightly lower than the figure for those aged 20-29, in the age group 40-54 the percentage dropped by about half (22%), and among those aged 55 and above it dropped slightly more (18%). Only in this group is the figure comparable to that of Israel (17%).

A large variance exists with respect to duration of residence between residents who rent an apartment and those who reside in an apartment that they own. While among renters in Jerusalem about a third (34%) had been residing in the apartment (at the time of the survey) for a period of 6 months to 1 year, among those who live in apartments they own only 6% indicated that this was the period of time they had been residing in their apartment. A residential period of 1.5-5 years was also more characteristic of renters (32%) than homeowners (15%). A residential period of 5.5-10 years was characteristic of both groups equally (16%), and the percentage of those residing for longer periods of time was much higher among homeowners (30%-34%) than among renters (7%-12%).

It is customarily assumed that apartment renters are people who cannot purchase an apartment, but the data indicate that a significant portion of renters in Jerusalem (14%) have another apartment that they own. A similar percentage was measured in Haifa (14%) and Israel (15%), and a slightly higher percentage was measured in Tel Aviv-Jaffa (18%).

Data source: The 2009 and 2010 social surveys of the Central Bureau of Statistics