Usually property owned by one partner prior to marriage remains that individual’s personal property and is not included in the pool of marital property to be divided between the parties upon divorce, because it is not considered the ‘fruit’ of their mutual effort . However, mortgage paid during the marriage from joint resources as a result of mutual effort will be taken into the account and the court will relate to the amount of repayments made in relation to the value of the apartment, when it divides or balances out marital property upon divorce. In other words, the paid-up part of the mortgage is joint property, so that the wife will be entitled to a sum equivalent to the half of the paid-up part of the mortgage in relation to the market value of the apartment

at the time of divorce. If, for example, the husband made a 60% down-payment on an apartment which was registered in his name before he married, and took out a mortgage for the remaining 40%, which he totally repaid during the marriage, then at the time of divorce, the wife will be entitled to 20% of the market value of the property (half of the paid-up mortgage).