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.[1][2]
Real estate is different from personal property, which is not permanently attached to the land, such as vehicles, boats, jewelry, furniture, tools and the rolling stock of a farm.
Residential real estate[]
Residential real estate may contain either a single family or multifamily structure that is available for occupation or for non-business purposes.[3]
Residences can be classified by and how they are connected to neighbouring residences and land. Different types of housing tenure can be used for the same physical type. For example, connected residences might be owned by a single entity and leased out, or owned separately with an agreement covering the relationship between units and common areas and concerns.[4]
Single-family detached house in Essex, Connecticut, United States
A photograph of Townhouses in Victoria, Australia
- Major categories
- Attached / multi-unit dwellings
- Apartment (American English) or Flat (British English) – An individual unit in a multi-unit building. The boundaries of the apartment are generally defined by a perimeter of locked or lockable doors. Often seen in multi-story apartment buildings.
- Multi-family house – Often seen in multi-story detached buildings, where each floor is a separate apartment or unit.
- Terraced house (a. k. a. townhouse or rowhouse) – A number of single or multi-unit buildings in a continuous row with shared walls and no intervening space.
- Condominium (American English) – A building or complex, similar to apartments, owned by individuals. Common grounds and common areas within the complex are owned and shared jointly. In North America, there are townhouse or rowhouse style condominiums as well. The British equivalent is a block of flats.
- Cooperative (a. k. a. co-op) – A type of multiple ownership in which the residents of a multi-unit housing complex own shares in the cooperative corporation that owns the property, giving each resident the right to occupy a specific apartment or unit.
- Tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access found in Britain.
- Semi-detached dwellings
- Duplex – Two units with one shared wall.
- Detached dwellings
- Bungalows
- Split-level home
- Mansions
- Villas
- Detached house or single-family detached house
- Cottages
- Portable dwellings
- Mobile homes or residential caravans – A full-time residence that can be (although might not in practice be) movable on wheels.
- Houseboats – A floating home
- Tents – Usually temporary, with roof and walls consisting only of fabric-like material.
The size of an apartment or house can be described in square feet or meters. In the United States, this includes the area of "living space", excluding the garage and other non-living spaces. The "square meters" figure of a house in Europe may report the total area of the walls enclosing the home, thus including any attached garage and non-living spaces, which makes it important to inquire what kind of surface area definition has been used. It can be described more roughly by the number of rooms. A studio apartment has a single bedroom with no living room (possibly a separate kitchen). A one-bedroom apartment has a living or dining room separate from the bedroom. Two bedroom, three bedroom, and larger units are common. (A bedroom is a separate room intended for sleeping. It commonly contains a bed and, in newer dwelling units, a built-in closet for clothes storage.)
Other categories
- Chawls
- Havelis
- Igloos
- Huts
The size of havelis and chawls is measured in Gaz (square yards), Quila, Marla, Beegha, and acre.
See List of house types for a complete listing of housing types and layouts, real estate trends for shifts in the market, and house or home for more general information.
As an investment[]
- Main article: Real estate investing
A house that was sold in Victoria Australia
In markets where land and building prices are rising, real estate is often purchased as an investment, whether or not the owner intends to use the property. Often investment properties are rented out, but "flipping" involves quickly reselling a property, sometimes taking advantage of arbitrage or quickly rising value, and sometimes after repairs are made that substantially raise the value of the property.
Luxury real estate is sometimes used as a way to store value, especially by wealthy foreigners, without any particular attempt to rent it out. Some luxury units in London and New York City have been used as a way for corrupt foreign government officials and businesspeople from countries without strong rule of law to launder money or to protect it from seizure.[5]
See also[]
- Commercial real estate
- Extraterrestrial real estate
- Real estate business
- Real estate economics
- Estate (land)
- Land lot
- Right to property