"Hence the determination of the test: What is a "residential apartment" according to the Regulations? It seems that the test for designating the apartment for residential use must include two elements: an objective element - inherent in the part of the definition that requires it to be an "apartment" - and a subjective element inherent in the purchaser's intention to designate the "apartment" for residential use.
With regard to the first element - the definition of "apartment" - it seems to us that, unlike the definition of an apartment in the law, the objective element should not be interpreted as "an apartment intended for residential use according to its nature" (my emphasis - M.S.), but rather the objective element should be given a broader meaning, which will include even buildings that are not intended for habitation by their nature, but can be considered "apartments". Therefore, the desirable meaning is that a building be an "apartment", if it has the potential for habitation, and is even unfit for habitation at this time, from the point of view of a reasonable person (see also the discussion of the definition of "apartment" in relation to the definition in the law by Hadari, in his aforementioned article, at pp. 144-147).
As for the second element - the intention to live - here the difficulty is greater. On the one hand, the language of the Regulations is, as stated above, future and not limited. Therefore, in principle, it can be argued that even an intention to reside, sincere, to live in the apartment ten years later, satisfies the requirements of the Regulation, provided that the purchaser declares this intention."
- It should be noted that the definition of "residential apartments" has been amended in the meantime, and it now includes an additional alternative:
")3) A shell apartment intended for residential use, including an apartment whose exterior walls have not yet been completed, if there is an undertaking on the part of the seller to finish its construction as a shell apartment; In this regard, a "shell apartment" means an apartment in a building intended for residential use, the construction of which has not yet been completed, and which does not carry with it an undertaking on the part of the seller to finish the construction, provided that the construction of the exterior walls of the apartment has been completed."