Why is it illegal to sell a house you don't own but legal?

to sell shares you dont have ?Additional Detailsso far the answers point to the more money you have the less likely you are to be arrested for fraud ?...

betmoneyonit	If your positon is long you do have own the stock. If you're short you are borrowing the shares in order to sell them with the requirement that you buy them back under specific conditions. Someone would really get upset if you borrowed their house and sold it. Not so with stocks, because they get a cut.
wartz	Because you can be forced to replace the shares but there is no way to replace a particular piece of real estate
raysor	Probably because shares are traded on a secondary market and houses are not. There is an index , or at least spread bet on housing market so in a way if you short that you are shorting the UK housing market.
dann	think of shares as money...........there are countless copies of a '10 dollar' bill....and all are worth...you guessed it '10 dollars'....wereas every house is different, and unique with personal value. this allows the use of 'short selling', sure you have documentaion of ownership of the shares, but one share bought in one state, is teh same as a share bought in another state, there all teh same................. one house in one state is never teh same as another house in another state, etc, etc... replaceable is teh key word i think
kidneypal	what do you mean sell shares you don't have? Shares are intangible objects while a house is tangible. both need to have papers as far as i know
Jess C	I hgave two answers your question is oddly worded. 1. If your speaking on shares then you can do this get a lean on the shares. Just like a bank loan you can promise to give those shares in exchange for money now, its just like the stocks as well. 2.If your selling somthing you dont have in your shop, and you never give the person what they bought, wouldnt that be fruad? Same concept applies to this.
Omgitshim1	It is to do with the marketability, and uniqueness of propery compared to shares. Each share is identical to another share. Each property is not identical to another property. (it cannot for example have exactly the same location) Shares are liquid, and a market exists where there will be a buyer or a seller (the market maker), whereas for property there is no such liquidity and marketability of the asset. It is therefore possible and reasonable to assume that you can sell shares you do not own (as you will be able to buy them later albeit at a different cost). Whereas a property you do not own, may never be for sale and so you could never buy or sell it. It does not make short selling right and correct, it just makes it more feasible than for property.
oliprofessor	naked short selling *is* illegal... only the big boys can do that however. legal short-sellers sell shares they don't own still, but these shares are legitimately borrowed (generally though the DTC, but sometimes brokerage firms can handle this internally if they have the shares you want to short on their books) You can sell a house you don't own so long as the owner allows you to, and so long as you can hand the deed back to them when necessary.