Inter relationship between Estate, Real Estate, Real Property and Insurance

  According to Thorncroft (1965), “An estate is a legal entity denoting the character and quality of rights that an individual or individuals possess in a property.” An estate can be tangible which can be described in terms of size, shape or location, it can be held in occupation or for investment purposes which is capable of yielding economic returns. Real estate means the land, buildings, and improvements in it. It is also a property consisting of land and buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water, immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this. Real property may be defined as the combination of land and any permanent structure or man-made structures or improvements that are permanently attached to land with the aim of improving land and enjoying its utilities, amenities, and profits or returns. Real estate in its various forms-residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural etc. forms an integral part of any economy. Real estate development is capital intensive, therefore huge finances are normally needed for carrying out the development. Real estate development refers to the application of capital and labor to land in such a manner that will bring about increase in the yield accruing from the land. The complexity and to a large extent, its capital-intensive nature demands proper and adequate funding to make it realistic. This requires that a colossal amount of money should be invested in real estate development in order to execute it. The capital required is so huge that most often, equity fund alone may not be sufficient to carry on the development. Real estate developers or investors source and obtain credit facilities to enable them fund development to completion. Loan funds are therefore essential for efficient operation of real estate development in any economy. Insurance companies play a vital role in real estate development particularly in this era of economic instability and corrupt tendencies. They are among the traditional ways of financing real estate development in Nigeria. Insurance companies are companies’ setup to undertake insurance policies with individuals, cooperate organization, institutions, etc. In relation to their properties which could be real or personal properties. They offer insurance policies to the public either by selling directly to an individual or through another source such as employee’s benefit plan. An insurance company is usually comprised of multiple insurance agents. An insurance company can specialize in one type of insurance, such as life insurance, health insurance, or auto insurance or offer multiple types of insurance. But for the purpose of this research work, we are going to concentrate on real property investment, so insurance in relation to real estate enable investors to assume the position they were before the occurrence of any hazard like fire, flood, civil unrest, building collapse which were covered under the insurance policy. From the fore going, insurance policy is a contract between the insured ( the investor undertaking the policy) were the insurer accepts to shoulder the loss incurred by the insured by virtue of the hazard covered under the insurance policy in consideration of premium. So the main aim of insurance is either to indemnify or reinstate the investor in a position he was before the hazard occurred,

In summary, We can rightly say that real estate and Real property cannot do without insurance vice versa