Real estate, or immovable property, is a legal term (in some jurisdictions) that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings. Real estate (immovable property) is often considered synonymous with real property (also sometimes called realty), in contrast with personal property (also sometimes called chattel or personalty). However, for technical purposes, some people prefer to distinguish real estate, referring to the land and fixtures themselves, from real property, referring to ownership rights over real estate.
In recent years, many economists, such as Hernando de Soto of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy, have recognized that the lack of effective real estate laws can be a significant barrier to investment in many developing countries. In most societies, rich or poor, a significant fraction of the total wealth is in the form of 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 mortgages -- bank loans for which the real property itself constitutes collateral. Banks are willing to make such loans at favorable rates in large part because if the borrower does not make payments the lender can foreclose, that is, file a court action that lets them take the property and sell it to get their money back. However, in many developing countries, there is no effective means by which a lender could foreclose, so the mortgage loan industry as such either does not exist at all or is only available to members of privileged social classes.
In spite of the name, the law does not consider real property more genuine or "real" than personal property. In law, the word real means relating to a thing (from Latin res, matter or thing), as distinguished from a person. Thus the law broadly distinguishes between real property (land and anything affixed to it) and personal property (everything else, e.g., clothing, furniture, money). The conceptual difference was between immovable property, which would transfer title along with the land, and movable property, which a person would retain title to. The term is not derived from the notion of land having historically been "royal" property. The word royal — and its Spanish cognate real — come from the unrelated Latin word rex, meaning king.
With the development of private property ownership, real estate has become a major area of business. Purchasing real estate requires a significant investment, and each parcel of land has unique characteristics, so the real estate industry has evolved into several distinct fields. The price or value of real estate, although it generally tends to increase over time, is highly volatile and erratic. Specialists are often called on to valuate real estate and facilitate transactions. Some kinds of real estate businesses include:
Appraisal - Professional valuation servicesBrokerages - Assisting buyers and sellers in transactionsDevelopment - Improving land for use by adding or replacing buildingsProperty management - Managing a property for its owner(s)Relocation services - Relocating people or business to different countryWithin each field, a business may specialize in a particular type of real estate, such as residential, commercial, or industrial property. In addition, almost all construction business effectively has a connection to real estate.
"Internet Real Estate" is a term coined by the internet investment community relating to the parallel that exists between high quality internet domain names and real-world, prime real estate - both are highly valued claims to something, and they can only be asserted or supported by means of agreement upon a certain code, such as a national legal system or the body governing internet domain names.