real and personal property

real and personal property, a basic division of property in English common law, roughly corresponding to the division between immovables and movables in civil law. At common law most interests in land and fixtures (such as permanent buildings) were classified as real-property interests. Leasehold interests in land, however, together with interests in tangible movables (e.g., goods, animals, or merchandise) and interests in intangibles (e.g., stocks, bonds, or bank accounts) were classified as personal-property interests, if they were classified as property at all. Personal property, also known as “chattels,” could be further subdivided into chattels personal (interests in tangible movables and in intangibles) and chattels real (personal property interests in land, of which leaseholds were the most important). Chattels personal could be further subdivided into choses in possession (interests in tangible movables, including animals, merchandise, and goods) and choses in action (interests in intangibles, including promissory notes and rights of action). The distinction between real and personal property, though still observed today, is of less significance in Anglo-American legal systems than it once was.