Full Professor of Civil Law and Director of the UNESCO Housing Chair at the University Rovira i Virgili (Spain). European Doctor in Law and M.Phil. in Land Economy of the University of Cambridge. ICREA Fellowship to excellence of research 2016-2020. Consultant of the EU Commission, the Catalan Parliament and Government, Amnesty International, FAO and the Association of German Pfandbrief Banks and since 2018, advisor to the German Ministry of the Interior, Construction and Community for the implementation of housing policies in Europe in its European Presidency in 2020. He has been Deputy Judge in the Court of Appeal of Tarragona for 15 years (2004-2018). He is the author of four books and has edited nine more. He has published 95 research papers and book chapters and has delivered over 170 invited speeches in 15 countries. He has taken part in drafting five laws related to housing. He has been main researcher or taken part in more than 40 national and international research projects.

Research interests

My main field of interest is the analysis of housing as a complex and multidisciplinary field of research, covering its whole spectrum, from homelessness until mortgages. Taking as central problem the access to housing, I address several factors that affect it, such as the types of tenures (full ownership, tenancies, intermediate tenures, collaborative), their funding (mortgage lending, eurohypothec, consumer protection against reckless lending and complex financial products), lenders’ refinancing mechanisms (covered bonds and securitization), housing and technology, cross-border acquisition of land and housing loss and its consequences (evictions and homelessness). To get the full picture, I have started up the first international and interdisciplinary UNESCO Housing Chair in the world. This holistic approach to housing has facilitated my engagement in the elaboration of several pieces of legislation and my participation in and leadership of several international research projects.

Keywords

housing, mortgage, tenancies, intermediate tenures, evictions, collaborative housing, blockchain