Contents

The concept of Property Ownership.


Property Types.


Characteristics of Real Estate.


Real Estate as a Marketable Product.


Real Estate Consumers and Their Influences.


Buying Decision and Stages.


Marketing Concept.


Real Estate Marketing.


Marketing Mix.


Market Segmentation.


Stages in Sale/Letting of Properties.


Real Estate Marketing Strategies.


Real Estate Advertising.





1. The Concept of Property Ownership

The concept of property ownership has no universally accepted definition. In the general usage, property means 'one's own thing' and refers to the relationship between individuals and the objects, which they see as being their own to dispense as they deem fit. To some people, especially the estate surveyors and valuers, property connotes the bundle of rights of obligations for a given object. It is not a relationship between people and a given object but a relationship between people with regards to the rights they have over the object.

In common law, property ownership is the interests or rights for a land or building. This interest can be Freehold or Leasehold. A freehold property ownership is one in which the owner holds the property in perpetuity. The owner can be in physical possession or in receipt of rents arising from the letting of the property. The legal term for this type of interest is "fee simple absolute in possession." On the other hand, leasehold interest is "term of years" and it is normally subject to the payment of an annual rent and observance of covenants contained in the lease. The holder of such interest cannot do whatever he likes without the express permission of the lessor. As defined in law, property is often conceptualized as the rights of ownership and could be private or public property. Private property is that which belongs to an individual, while public property is that which belongs to a community collectively or a state.


Communal property systems describe ownership as belonging to the entire social and political unit, while corporate systems describe ownership as being attached to an identifiable group with n identifiable responsible individual, generally a member of a family unit. Different societies may have different theories of property for differing types of ownership, as the above paragraph makes clear: land is collectively owned, improvements are individually owned, but may not be transferred outside of the community. Currently, anthropological theory relates the kind of kinship system - whether through one or both parents - with certain property theories, though this idea is in dispute. Essentially, it is very common among property systems to have the community own property if only one method of reckoning is used. Exceptions to this rule have been documented, but it remains the prevailing assumption of tribal ownership.


2. Property Types

Property may be immovable property, estate in land, real estate, real property; and could also be distinguished in terms of tangible and intangible property as well. In common law, property is divided into real property (immovable property) referring to interests in land and improvements thereto; and personal property, which is an interest in anything other than real property. Personal property in turn is divided into tangible property (such as cars, clothing, animals) and intangible or abstract property (e.g. financial instruments such as stocks and bonds, etc.), which includes intellectual property (patents, copyrights, trademarks). Immovable property is the equivalent of "real property" in common law systems, i.e. it is land or any permanent feature or structure above or below the surface. In the United State, immovable property is any immovable object, real estate, item of property that cannot be moved. Includes premises and property rights (for example, heritable building right), houses, land and associated goods and chattels. Personal property is a type of property, also called chattels in the common law. It is distinguished from real property, or real estate. Also, personal property is often called movable property or movables - any property that can be moved from one location or another. This term is in distinction with immovable property or immovable, such as land and buildings.


Property may be divided into several different categories based on its characteristics. One way to distinguish property is by its functional characteristics. Property is usually an intermediate input for production in manufacturing or farming. However, it is directly consumed by end-users when it is used for residential purposes. Therefore, demand for residential property will be determined by utility rather than profitability considerations. The functionality of land may further be differentiated by the nature of the productive activity occurring there. For instance, a property can be used to farm crops, harvest timber, exploit for minerals, produce manufactured goods, or to house and sell goods and provide services; these different productive activities utilize property characteristics in different ways. For instance, soil fertility is important to farmers, while the quality and quantity of underground deposits are important to mining companies. Property may also be distinguished by owner characteristics. A property may be occupied by its owner, leased or rented, publicly owned, or have quasi-public ownership.

Categorization may also be made on the basis of government zoning ordinances, which serve to restrict property uses in order to limit land use fragmentation and control spatial externalities. Finally, property markets may be distinguished by region. Nodes are surrounded by boundaries which limit the feasibility of productively utilizing property beyond these limits. Each of these characteristics, functionality, owner, government regulation, and region play a role in defining distinct property markets. The following categories are distinguished: single family homes, apartment buildings, agriculture (including fields, pasture, and buildings), Forest, Industry (including commercial and manufacturing), Utilities, Special properties (including nursing homes, sports facilities, schools, churches, communication, and defense installations), Vacant land. Property may be divided into several different categories based on its characteristics. One way to distinguish property is by its functional characteristics. property is usually an intermediate input for production in manufacturing or farming. However, it is directly consumed by end-users when it is used for residential purposes. Therefore, demand for residential property will be determined by utility rather than profitability considerations.


3. Characteristics of Real Estate

Modern property rights conceive of ownership and possession as belonging to legal individuals, even if the legal individual is not a real person. Thus, corporations, government and other collective forms of ownership are framed in terms of individual ownership. Exceptions to this pattern include the "commons", which belong to a defined community, and public domain, to which access is unlimited. Property is usually thought of in terms of a bundle of rights as defined and protected by the local sovereignty. Ownership, however, does not necessarily equate with sovereignty. Traditionally, the bundle of rights includes the control use of the property; benefit from the property (examples: mining rights and rent); transfer or sell the property; with exclusive rights which excludes others from the property.

Property may be held in a number of forms, e.g. joint ownership, community property, sole ownership, lease, etc. These different types of ownership may complicate an owner's ability to exercise his or her rights unilaterally. For example if two people own a single piece of land as joint tenants, then depending on the law in the jurisdiction, each may have limited recourse for the actions of the other. For example, one of the owners might sell his interest in the property to a stranger that the owner does not particularly like. Unlike other forms of investment, real property differs in form, characteristics, and qualities. It is limited in supply as it is costly if not extremely impossible to create additional land to meet immediate use. It is also common to real property that no two properties are the same in all aspect of size, soil condition, locality, and physical condition.

Another special characteristic of land and building is that given a land and building the ownership may differ and vary in terms of the number of persons that can claim different rights or interests in it with each of the whole gamut of interests being able to be sold in the open market.

Over many years, the ownership of land has developed and modified at various times, but the Law of Property Act 1925 has modified the ownership of land to come under two legal estate, namely, the tenancy in fee simple and the term certain. The tenancy in fee simple, also called the freehold, is a superior interest in land, and the holding of the interest is perpetual and of endless time with the owner having the right to sell, grant lower form of interest, occupy, enjoy the use and occupation without let or hindrance from any person, and do whatever he wishes. This right is however not absolute as it is subject to limitations statutory controls such as planning regulation, and the provisions of the Land use Act of 1978 in Nigeria.


The term certain (or term of years absolute in possession) is created for specific period of time, it has the beginning and the date that it ends or expires for renewal or surrender or reversion to its original owner. This could be for such period of time such as weekly, monthly, annually or even for a specific and definite number of years granting the tenant (the lessee or leaseholder) the right to enjoy the occupation of the property over the agreed number of years, paying rent to the landlord (lessor) and at the end of agreed time property will revert to the landlord.

In many cases, tenants often "sublets", that is, he grants the use and occupation of the property or part thereof (for a period less than what the landlord has granted him) to another person called the sub-lessee or under-lessee at the consent of the landlord. In this wise, the tenant thus becomes the sub-lessor. The original tenant will still be responsible to the freeholder for the terms and covenant of the lease.

Usually the relationship between the landlord and the tenant or between the tenant and the sub-tenant is evidenced by a written agreement, which must be under seal in case of a Lease in which the tenant is to occupy and enjoy the property for a period more than three years otherwise it becomes a tenancy agreement. A tenancy agreement, (that is the covenants signed between the landlord and the tenant written but not under seal) can be written or oral; it is oral if it is not written.


The lease or tenancy agreement often states the terms upon which the relationship between the landlord and tenants rests, this includes the names of the parties to the lease, the period (the start date and the end date), the regularity of payment and rent revision clause, responsibility for certain liabilities like repairs, insurance and other outgoings. The responsibility for carrying out the repair and insurance will be reflected in the lease. This could be internal repairing and insuring lease in which case the tenant will be responsible for carrying out all repairs and insurance; while it could be internal repairs only in which the landlord carries out the responsibility for external repairs and insurance.

In practice, where the landlord grants the use of land to a lessee for a long period, it is termed as a ground lease. A ground rent is paid as consideration for the use of the land only. the lessee may erect permanent structure on the land for personal use or for subletting but at the end of the agreed term both the land and the improvements thereon will revert to the landlord, who is said to have reversionary interest in the property while the term endured. Other rights and interests that may exist in real property include tenancy in fee tail and tenancy for life. "An estate tail is a lesser estate: descent is limited to lineal descendants only, and the owner of an estate tail cannot alienate it for longer than his own life" and under an entailed interest, the son is not entitled in possession during his father's lifetime (Elias, 1981).


4. Real Estate as a Marketable Product

The word "market" has a great number of meanings, and it may be used in terms of institutionalized activities which occur at a definite place and time involving the meeting of people. It may be defined as "authorized public place where buyers and sellers meet. Real estate market connotes an exchange of physical and legal rights and interests in real estate, involving willing and able vendors and purchasers at a price and particular time. This definition confirms open market, and if the parties are under compulsion to buy or sell the definition of open market becomes defeated. Property markets can be "Stratified" in different ways, including by region, clusters of individuals with similar demographic and socioeconomics characteristics, and by time (Cobb 1984).

With real estate, there are alternative of renting or purchasing. Owner of a property may grant its possession to another person for a short term on daily, weekly, monthly or yearly tenancy, or on long term of three to 999 years, called lease; and the price at which a property is offered for sale or letting is influenced by the interplay of demand and supply and the totality of economic and social factors which have impacts on the transaction. These factors may be exogenous or endogenous. exogenous factors originate outside the nature and characteristics of a particularly property, for example such factors are those that regulate availability and cost of mortgage, others are expectation and attitudes of vendors and purchasers, demand supply, impact of surrounding properties, while endogenous factors are those arising from the particular property, and include physical condition of the property, location, facilities, material of construction, and age.

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