Public property is property which is owned by the state, city, community or tribe. This is in contrast to private property, owned by a individual person or artificial entities that represent the financial interests of persons, such as corporations. State ownership, also called public ownership, government ownership or state property, are property interests that are vested in the state, rather than an individual or communities.

Crown property

In the modern representative democracy, "public property" is synonymous to state property, which is said to be owned by the people as a commons. In many Commonwealth realms, such property is said to be owned by the Crown. Examples include Crown land, Crown copyright, and Crown Dependencies.