Abstract Asbestos has been a major concern of real estate developers affecting virtually every aspect of their industry. It has cost the industry a lot of losses in terms of cash, job losses and compensation to victims. This research paper aims to evaluate the various ways through which asbestos has impacted the real estate industry. It will achieve this by showing various data on the adverse impacts of asbestos. It will also show the influence of various laws in the way the real estate industry is affected by asbestos. Introduction Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral found in several forms. It is mined chiefly in Canada and Russia as a dense rock and separated into fibers by crushing. Asbestos was widely used before the 1970s by the construction industry because of its strength and flexibility, temperature-resisting properties in insulation, caulking, floor tiles and plastics by the automotive industry in brake linings, and by the textile industry in fire-resistant clothing. Although asbestos causes no serious health problems as long as it remains intact, it becomes dangerous when it crumbles or breaks and its fibers are released. The fibers can cause diseases such as asbestosis and certain types of cancer. Because of these hazards, use of asbestos in industry is regulated in the United States to protect workers and many uses of the material are banned entirely. Since the effects of asbestos exposure often do not appear until years later, there is concern in the United States over the presence of asbestos in older buildings, particularly schools. Exposure to asbestos fibers may cause several illnesses such as Asbestosis Mesothelioma, lung cancer and pleural plaques. Literature review Given the widespread use of asbestos in building materials in the 21st century, the management and abutment of asbestos-containing building material (ACM) have become an important part of real estate management and development. Accurate delineation, abatement planning and reporting are necessary to satisfy the law and the requirements of lending institutes. Like a genie turned against its master, asbestos is now recognized as an especially sinister carcinogen. It has been implicated in the disabilities and deaths of thousands of shipyard workers, industrial laborers and miners. Fibers that lodged in their lungs from massive exposure to airborne asbestos in the 1930s and 1940s, led decades later, to asbestosis, lung cancer and Mesothelioma a rare killer that attacks the lining of the lungs and intestinal tract. As deaths mounted state environmental agencies and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added asbestos to their long lists of hazardous substances and restricted its use as a building material in the early 1970s. While asbestos and other environmental contamination disclosures have been commonplace in commercial real estate transactions for years, the level of attention paid to lead in residential transactions has only recently given comparable billing. The formal requirement for lead disclosures raises practical and legal considerations in the preparation for and completion of both purchase and lease transactions. Effective in 1996, EPA and Department of Housing and Urb