| Real estate
:
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.
The terms real estate and real property are used primarily in common
law, while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable 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 word is not
derived from the notion of land having historically been "royal"
property. The word royal — and its Castilian cognate real
— come from the unrelated Latin word rex, meaning king.) |