Introduction Real estate is fixed, tangible, immovable assets in the form of homes or commercial properties (Seldin & Richard 1985). The real estate market involves the development, rental, sale/purchase and renovation of these assets (houses). Market participants include developers (contractors, engineers, and so on), facilitators (mortgage companies, real estate brokers, banks, managing agents, and so on), landlords, tenants (lessors), and renovators (Seldin & Richard 1985). Like other economic markets, real estate markets have internal and external forces that impact the market (Seldin & Richard 1985). The forces of supply and demand have the greatest impact in the industry as they determine the growth or decline of the market (Seldin & Richard 1985). Owner, renter and user are on the demand side of the market, i.e. they are consumers. Builders, financiers and renovators are suppliers (Acton et al 1999). Unlike the commodity market, the forces of supply and demand do not fluctuate easily. This is due to the uniqueness of this market. The real market industry has these unique characteristics, durability of products as buildings can last for decades or centuries. Each product (house) is unique in terms of buildings, location and financing, so the market presents heterogeneous products (Acton et al 1999). Transaction costs are high and the process is usually long. Although there are mobile homes, but the land underneath is still immovable, real estate is an immovable asset (Acton et al 1999). The main factor influencing demand in the real estate sector is demographic characteristics. Demographic variables include population size and growth, cultural background, beliefs and religion (Acton et al 1999). However, other factors such as income, price of housing, cost and availability of funds, consumer preference, supplier preference, price of substitutes and compliments (Acton et al 1999). The shift in housing supply is influenced by the cost of using land, labor, building materials, and other inputs such as electricity (Pascal 1967). Again, the price of existing houses and production technology influence new supply (Pascal 1967). The price elasticity of demand for homes measures the sensitivity of the price of homes to changes in their demand (Pascal 1967). PED (Houses) = % Price % Real estate units demanded In the short term the elasticity of demand with respect to price is high, in the long term the elasticity is not very high (Pascal 1967).