Monitoring and restricting real property ownership on national security grounds: The case of Northern European countries

Rapid changes in global geopolitics have prompted debate about the need to monitor and restrict ownership of real property on national security grounds. Research of foreign ownership on real property has focused on the economic effects of infrastructure purchases, whereas the range of land administration tools to monitor or restrict ownership rights has not received much detailed examination. The aim of this research is to map and compare the current regulatory landscape for monitoring and restricting real estate ownership in the Northern European context. We root our study into land administration literature and particularly to the Legal Cadastral Domain Model that separates the subject and object of the restriction. We collect data from five case countries, namely Estonia, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Norway, through email interviews and analyse the repertory of tools currently in place. The results show that various land administration tools are used for monitoring and restricting ownership rights, of which most typical example is expropriation. Although the application of monitoring and restricting tools is often justified with other reasons such as protecting agriculture or food production, their use may still support national security means indirectly. Also, while there exist several different tools, most of them are used because of the characteristics of the object of the restriction, not the subject. • National security is cross-cutting theme affecting also LA. • Tools of LA can be used to restrict ownership right. • This study mapped LA tools in Northern European context. • Results may be transferred to countries with facing similar security issues.