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Buying your first home? Get all your real estate information you need in this first home buyer's guide, from choosing a home in the latest hotspots, signing the contract, finance and mortgage information to first home owner grants.

Another advantage of the injection of cash for first home buyers is that it may relieve the long-term housing shortage. In recent months there have been angry scenes at rental viewings, with some agents experiencing acts of violence from people desperate to secure a rental property.

With the development of private property ownership, real estate has become a major area of business. Purchasing real estate requires a significant investment, and each parcel of land has unique characteristics, so the real estate industry has evolved into several distinct fields. Specialists are often called on to valuate real estate and facilitate transactions.

Mortgage loans or real estate loans are loans used to purchase land or buildings such as houses or factories. These are typically long-term loans and the interest rate charged can be either a variable or a fixed rate for the term of the loan, which often ranges from 15 to 30 years. The land and buildings purchased serve as the collateral for the loan.

In recent years, many economists have recognized that the lack of effective real estate laws can be a significant barrier to investment in many developing countries. In most societies, rich or poor, a significant fraction of the total wealth is in the form of land and buildings.

In most advanced economies, the main source of capital used by individuals and small companies to purchase and improve land and buildings is mortgage loans (or other instruments). These are loans for which the real property itself constitutes collateral.

Banks are willing to make such loans at favorable rates in large part because, if the borrower does not make payments, the lender can foreclose by filing a court action which allows them take back the property and sell it to get their money back. For investors, profitability can be enhanced by using an off plan or pre-construction strategy to purchase at a lower price which is often the case in the pre-construction phase of development.

But in many developing countries there is no effective means by which a lender could foreclose, so the mortgage loan industry, as such, either does not exist at all or is only available to members of privileged social classes.

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