Sublets in Baka, Jerusalem

The neighbourhood stretches from Hebron Road (Derech Hevron) in the east to Derech HaRakevet and Pierre Koenig Street in the west. Rivka Street closes it off to the south, and the old railway station stands at its northern tip. Across Hebron Road is Abu Tor; to the south, Talpiot and its industrial zone; to the west, Mekor Haim; and to the north-west, the German and Greek Colonies.

Most streets are named after the tribes of Israel, such as Yehuda, Reuven, Yissachar and Gad, or after figures from the period of the Judges, such as Barak and Boaz. And if a listing says “Geulim”, it's the same place: the official Hebrew name it was given after the 1948 war never caught on, and survives mostly on signs.

In the 1920s well-off Muslim, Christian and Armenian families built one- and two-storey mansions here that mixed Eastern and Western styles. In 1948 the Arab residents left, and refugees from the Jewish Quarter and new immigrants moved into the houses. From the late 1970s middle-class professionals arrived, many of the houses were renovated, and some of the larger ones were divided into luxury apartments.

In the 1950s housing blocks for immigrants covered the neighbourhood's farmland: long buildings three or four storeys high. From the 1990s many were renovated and enlarged under the Project Renewal programme, which shows on Rivka, Tzipora and Gad streets. The 1980s added houses built around inner courtyards, for example on Dan Street, and for genuinely new construction there's Dina Street, a pedestrian street between eight new apartment buildings that got its name in 2017.

A safe room (mamad) mostly comes with new construction, and in the stone houses and housing blocks it's rare. So before you book, find out: is there a mamad in the apartment? If not, where do you go when the siren sounds, and how long does it take to get there? In a four-storey block, ask about an elevator too.

You get to the city centre by bus, mainly along Hebron Road, where a dedicated public transport lane was completed in 2010. The catch is that the city is digging all around: light rail works have been under way on Hebron Road since 2022 and on nearby Emek Refaim since July 2025, and many lines have been diverted, so check your route close to moving day. The Blue Line will run along Hebron Road, and the Tchelet (light blue) line, from Malha to Mount Scopus, will run along Emek Refaim. The southern sections are expected at the end of 2029.

Until then, there are bikes. The Railway Park (Park HaMesila) borders Baka on the west. It's a five-kilometre path on the route the train once took, with almost no climbs, and the longest bike path in Jerusalem. To the north it reaches the First Station; to the south it carries on through Oranim junction and under the Bar'am bridge to the Biblical Zoo.

Baka's shops, cafés and restaurants are concentrated on Derech Beit Lechem, and together with nearby Emek Refaim it's West Jerusalem's second-largest cluster of restaurants and cafés, after the city centre and the Mahane Yehuda market. Batya Gur even set her detective novel Retzach BeDerech Beit Lechem (literally “Murder on Bethlehem Road”) here. And the station that linked Jerusalem with the centre of the country until 1998 is now the First Station, a culture and commerce complex.

Religious, traditional and secular residents live side by side, and the synagogues span several streams, among them Kol HaNeshama, the city's largest Reform congregation. The neighbourhood is popular with English- and French-speaking immigrants, and Ulpan Etzion, Israel's first ulpan, ran here from 1949 to 2008. Baka suits families, olim, and anyone who loves cafés and cycling.

Price first: demand has pushed prices up here, and well-off residents replaced many of the old-timers, so don't expect a bargain. Quality isn't uniform either. A renovated mansion and an unrenovated block are two different worlds, even when they're right next to each other, so ask the host for photos of the stairwell and the front of the building, not just the living room. In the neighbourhood's favour: the height difference between Hebron Road and Derech HaRakevet is only about 20 metres, very little in a hilly city like Jerusalem.

Driving? Check in advance whether the apartment includes parking. And on money: Home Sublet charges renters no fees, and rent and deposit go from you straight into the host's hands at the key handover. And without the landlord's consent there's no sublet, so make sure the host can show it.