Letter from the President

Dear Members, dear colleagues and friends,

This year ELRA’s General Assembly is concluded. Hosted by our distinguished colleagues from Spain, Deganat Autonomic de Catalunya, it was a fruitful day filled with captivating topics and inspiring discussions. We have taken full advantage of the presence of our distinguished guests from academia and of practitioners from various professional fields. Together, we have tackled subjects such as soft-law, housing policies, artificial intelligence and gained valuable insight into the British Columbia Land Registry.

It has been a great day for all of us who grew up professionally believing that the publicity of real rights is a protection mechanism both for owners and for third parties. After so many meetings that ELRA has organized over the past 20 years—including the one we have just concluded—and after developing numerous studies on successions,  the mortgage market, the fight against money laundering, legal restrictions, the housing crisis, insolvency, the application of European law, and even the land registry itself, we are entitled to affirm that the publicity provided by land registries is far more complex and subtle than that of an ordinary public registry.

Land registries allow us to study the past, present, and future of real estate from legal, economic, and social perspectives. I am a land registrar, and I may be subjective—but I know of only two places where legal debates are so complex, diverse, and at the same time balanced: the courts and the land registries.

Once one understands how a Land Registry truly works, it becomes clear that many dimensions must be considered and harnessed. The Land Registry stands at the confluence of essential data flows, receiving information from various sources, storing, combining, and restructuring these data—and then providing them to other systems. While some other systems manage data in an inter partes context, the Land Registry ensures erga omnes effects, offering universal publicity. It is the place where the entire legal history of a property is revealed for everyone.

Therefore, the role of the Land Registry extends far beyond the security of civil transactions: it supports public policy, informed decision-making, economic growth, and social stability.

Strong land registries are fundamental to reducing litigation rates—especially in times when courts are overloaded—to fostering public trust, attracting investment, and ensuring secure transactions. Beyond legal reasoning, the Land Registry embodies order and harmony—it is the applied expression of the rule of law.

However, maintaining such a system is demanding. It requires high professional qualifications along with devotion, patience, and excellent management. Why excellent management? Because decisions regarding the regulation and administration of land registries do not produce immediate results.

Their consequences emerge over time—sometimes as long-term stability and predictability across economic, political, and social spheres; sometimes, unfortunately, as long-lasting difficulties when policies are misguided. That is why land registries also require a stable and predictable legal framework.

Managing a Land Registry, therefore, calls for delicate judgment—given its multiplying effects through interactions with other legal domains and its erga omnes consequences. And those multiplying effects can work both ways, as mentioned before.

The role of ELRA is not to judge or evaluate, but to foster an inclusive and generative environment for all European land registries—to make the exchange of best practices possible and to strengthen cooperation both among registries and with related systems. This mission is even more essential today, as disruptive technologies continue to reshape our world.

In this context of constant change and challenge, land registries must remain pillars of stability—precisely because of their unique position at the intersection of law, economy, and society. Their stability and performance will be reflected in all adjacent systems that rely on their data. It is our duty, as land registrars, to keep these systems performing at their highest potential. Yet, we depend on the policies that shape them. It is up to the lawmaker whether the land registry becomes a source of public trust and economic benefit—or an additional burden.

What we can do, as a European organization and as land registrars, is to promote a deeper understanding of the registry’s role and to contribute our expertise to better policy-making. ELRA brings together national Contact Points—land registrars with the highest level of expertise—placing our organization in the best position to provide a comprehensive overview of European land registries.

Thank you for your trust! The new Board will continue to consolidate our organization and to increase its value by enhanced cooperation with other organizations sharing the same aims and by developing projects which we’ll enrich our professional expertise.  I believe that together we will be able to identify the most valuable topics to be studied, and we will provide the most relevant outcomes in our area.

Feel invited, please, to join ELRA’s journey in the most active and constructive way!

Barcelona, 29^th October 2025