real estate

Housing prices rise when land, zoning, interest rates, construction costs, income, speculation, and supply constraints collide.

Global real estate was worth about $393.3 trillion at the start of 2025, and China and the United States hold nearly half of it. Annual investment is far smaller, near $840 billion. Here is how the rankings work, where the money goes, and what the data cannot tell you.

Homeownership rates are not a simple prosperity ranking. OECD and Eurostat data show how outright ownership, mortgages, renting, housing costs and historic policy produce very different housing outcomes.

Property is the world's largest asset class. Real estate sells well as "passive income" — the reality is more complicated, more profitable in some ways, less so in others.