The primary aim of this paper is to determine the most common contemporary meaning of the terms most often used to characterise international real estate transactions. The synonyms of the terms “international”, “real estate”, “transactions” or terms used in research literature with similar meanings were identified during the research. The secondary aim of this paper is to investigate real estate transactions in Latvia giving primary attention to the period 2010–2014, which was significant because during this time, compared to all other countries in the world, Latvia offered the most inexpensive opportunity for a non-citizen to obtain a temporary residence permit simply by purchasing real estate for the minimum price of EUR 71,139. Latvia’s case shows how significantly only one factor – the increase of this minimum price requirement to EUR 250,000 in 2014, affected the number of international real estate transactions in Latvia. A number of research methods were employed for the research, including the historical, empirical and comparative analysis of real estate transactions and the terminology used in this field.