Definition

Real estate is a legal term (in the US) that includes land, along with anything permanently affixed to the land, e.g. buildings; specifically: "Property that is stationary, or fixed in location." Real estate can be considered the same as real property (also sometimes called realty), in contrast to personal property (aka personalty). Sometimes, "real estate" means the land, plus buildings, versus "real property"--the ownership rights of the land itself.

The terms real estate and real property are used primarily in common law, while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable property.

Mortgages and real estate

Recently, experts have begun to consider that without effective real estate laws, developing countries have a harder time attracting development. In most societies, rich and poor, a large amout of the total wealth is land and buildings.

In most advanced economies, the main source of capital used by individuals and small companies to purchase and improve land and buildings is loans (especially mortgage loans). These are loans where the "real property" is the collateral. Banks often make loans at lower interest rates since they can foreclose and resell the property. For real estate investors, they can make a higher profit margin by using an off plan or pre-construction strategy to purchase at a lower price, which is often the case in the pre-construction phase of development.

Still, in many developing countries, there is no easy way for a lender to foreclose, so the mortgage loan industry is nonexistant or only available to members of the upper class.

Foreign real estate

In the UK, the term "real estate" is used mostly in the context of probate law, meaning all interests in land held by a deceased person at death (with various financial exceptions).

In many modern european countries, real estate is refered to as "immovables", while other property is called "movables".

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Real estate".

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