Real estate1

Real estate is "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; (also) an item of real property; (more generally) buildings or housing in general. Also: the business of real estate; the profession of buying, selling, or renting land, buildings, or housing." For First time home buyers please check first time home buyer. For programs for first time home buyer please check first time home buyer programs.

It is a legal term in jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, United States of America, Dubai, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and The Bahamas. Real estate law is the body of regulations and legal codes which pertain to such matters under a particular jurisdiction and concerns such things as commercial and residential property ownership, development, and transactions. Real estate is often considered synonymous with real property (sometimes called realty), in contrast with personal property (sometimes called 'chattels' or 'personalty' under 'chattel law' or 'personal property law'). The terms 'real estate' and 'real property' are used primarily in common law, while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable property. However, in some situations the term 'real estate' refers to the land and fixtures thereon together, as distinguished from 'real property', referring to the ownership of land and its appurtenances, including anything of a permanent nature such as structures, trees, minerals, and the interest, benefits, and inherent rights thereof. Real property is typically considered to be immovable property.

Etymology: In the laws of the United States of America, the 'real' in 'real estate' means relating to a thing (res/'rei', thing, from O.Fr. 'reel', from L.L. 'realis' 'actual', from Latin. 'res', 'matter, thing'), as distinguished from a person. Thus the law broadly distinguishes between 'real' property (land and anything affixed to it) and 'personal' property or chattels (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 could lawfully take and would retain title to on disposal of the land.

The oldest document using a term recognizable as 'real estate' in historical records is dated 1605. This use of 'real' also reflects the ancient feudal customs in relation to land and the ownership (and owners) thereof, introduced into England over 500 years earlier, by William the Conqueror in 1066.

Some people have claimed that the word 'real' in this sense is descended (like French 'royal' and Spanish 'real') from the Latin word for 'king'. In the feudal system (which has left many traces in the common law) the king was the owner of all land, and everyone who occupied land paid him rent directly or indirectly (through lords who in turn paid the king), in cash, goods, or services (including military service). Property tax, paid to the state, can be seen as a relic of that system, as too is the term fee simple. Some say this derivation is a misconception; but that is countered by evidence that the earliest meaning of 'real' in English included "Of, relating to, or characteristic of a monarch, royalty, or (by extension) the nobility, esp. with regard to power, wealth, or dignity; (also) befitting a monarch."

Additionally, there is evidence that the earliest meaning of 'real' in English included "Having an objective existence; actually existing physically as a thing, substantial; not imaginary." which supports the statement in the first paragraph of this section on the Etymology of the term 'real estate' that 'real' = 'relating to a thing…as distinguished from a person'. However, it needs to be borne in mind that the time between the Norman Conquest and the earliest recorded documentary appearance of 'real estate' allowed for both meanings of the word 'real' to gain common currency in verbal and written use in England, as individual words; and for the term 'real estate' to gain common currency in verbal and written use with the word 'real' in it having the same meanings, or, one, or even more, different meanings, to when it was used on its own; but of which there is no specific, historical documentary evidence.

On that basis, the reason for these several possible meanings of 'real' in relation to 'real estate' may have been that not all of England and Wales became 'real estate' in the 'royal' sense by reason only of the Norman Conquest. The Domesday Book provides evidence that some holdings of land in England and Wales remained in the hands of people, who were not the king. In other words, they were allodial land. Two main classes of that allodial land are distinguishable, by inference and synthesis, from, the Domesday Book; the passage and enforcement of the Act of Supremacy 1534 and Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 by Henry VIII of England; Welsh Law prior to 1535; and the history of Probate in England and Wales; namely, that of the Roman Catholic Church, and that of the parts of Wales where the custom known as 'dadunnedd' under Welsh Law applied.

Another etymological consequence of those radical measures by Henry VIII was that the expression 'real estate' became an official English expression, and the English 'law of real estate' became the official real estate law of England and Wales, because the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 included clauses requiring that, upon the day appointed by the statute, and thereafter, no law or language other than those of England shall be used in the courts of England and Wales. This meant that the laws of the Roman Catholic Church and of the former Welsh kings were eradicated from use throughout England and Wales. The clauses concerning language were repealed by Elizabeth II in 1993, to facilitate use of minority languages in the courts of England and Wales as the populations of those nations had by then become multi-cultural, because those clauses infringed the human rights of the people that spoke them.