real estate

/ˌri(ə)l əsˈteɪt/

/rɪəl ɛsˈteɪt/

Other forms: real estates

You don't need to own a fancy estate to own real estate. If you own an apartment, a cabin, or even a little plot of land, you own real estate.

If your grandmother is thinking about buying a condo, she's in the market for real estate, and if your family owns more than one house, they've invested money in real estate. Someone whose job involves helping people buy and sell houses might say, "I work in real estate." This term was first recorded around 1660, but even earlier the word real was used in law for "immovable property."

Definitions of real estate

1. noun

   property consisting of houses and land
   synonyms: immovable, real property, realty

   types:

   acres, demesne, estate, land, landed estate

   extensive landed property (especially in the country) retained by the owner for his own use

   land

   the land on which real estate is located

   dead hand, mortmain

   real property held inalienably (as by an ecclesiastical corporation)

   freehold

   an estate held in fee simple or for life

   glebe

   plot of land belonging to an English parish church or an ecclesiastical office

   leasehold

   land or property held under a lease

   smallholding

   a piece of land under 50 acres that is sold or let to someone for cultivation

   homestead

   land acquired from the United States public lands by filing a record and living on and cultivating it under the homestead law

   farmstead

   the buildings and adjacent grounds of a farm

   homestead

   the home and adjacent grounds occupied by a family

   no man's land

   land that is unowned and uninhabited (and usually undesirable)

   feoff, fief

   a piece of land held under the feudal system

   barony

   the estate of a baron

   countryseat

   an estate in the country

   Crown land

   land that belongs to the Crown

   manor

   the landed estate of a lord (including the house on it)

   seigneury, seigniory, signory

   the estate of a seigneur

   hacienda, latifundium

   a large estate in Spanish-speaking countries

   plantation

   an estate where cash crops are grown on a large scale (especially in tropical areas)

   entail

   land received by fee tail

   type of:

   belongings, holding, property

   something owned; any tangible or intangible possession that is owned by someone