Israeli business and economics daily the Calcalist reported on Wednesday that Avner Netanyahu purchased a £502,500 ($680,000) apartment in Oxford in October 2022, following a proposed mini-budget set out by then-UK Prime Minister Liz Truss that sent the pound plummeting.
According to the newspaper, Netanyahu paid exactly 1.98 million shekels for the apartment, slightly below the foreign asset reporting threshold of two million shekels.
According to the Calcalist, had the apartment been purchased “just 10 days before or after” Truss’s mini-budget, it would have been worth more than two million shekels, which would have required mandatory reporting of overseas property to Israeli tax authorities.
Citing the UK’s Land Registry website, the Calcalist also reported that Netanyahu made the purchase under the name Avi Avner Segal – a legal alias Avner adopted based on his paternal grandmother’s maiden name.
It added that Netanyahu made the purchase without having to take out a mortgage. As of 2025, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earns an annual salary of at least $150,000.
Avner Netanyahu defended the purchase, telling the Calcalist that the name change was legal and had been registered with the interior ministry.
“I changed my name on my ID card at the Israeli interior ministry, and then changed my passport and driver’s licence. It’s a package deal,” he said.
“We reported everything that was necessary to the tax authorities in Israel and Britain,” he continued, adding, “All of my conduct was legal, both here and there.”
Now working at the strategic consulting firm Strategy&, part of the accounting firm PwC, Netanyahu said the name change had been prompted by security concerns.
At the time, his father was serving as opposition leader, and his request for Shin Bet protection while studying abroad had been denied.
“I didn’t have security at the time,” he told the Calcalist.
“I knew that if I walked around with that name, in another country with Muslims, I would get stabbed by the first person who heard it at a train station.”
