Property, Real Estate and Real Property

To the layman, property often refers to the ‘land’ or ‘land and building’. Property is also often known as real estate.

Real estate refers to immovable property which includes land and improvements to the land such as buildings.

Specifically, real estate can be defined as the physical land and those man-made items attached to the land be it on, above or below the ground.

Real estate/property sometimes may refer to the legal rights and interests in land and buildings. In this context, real property is the more appropriate term.

Real property is a legal term used to describe ownership rights over real estate. Real property refer to all interests, benefits and rights inherent in the ownership of physical real estate. An interest or interests in real property is normally demonstrated by some evidence of ownership e.g. a title deed.