Research group of real estate history

The goal of our research group is to advance the knowledge of property history.

Real estate is an essential factor in the Norwegian society, both for those who own the properties and those who have different kinds of rights related to the properties. At the same time, getting an overview of what a land property actually consists of is a demanding task. Particularly challenging are questions regarding the rights in properties that was founded a long time ago.

The goal of our research group is to advance the knowledge of property history, a history that has many starting points and as many deviations from the starting point. The main objective behind our work is the idea that increasing knowledge about historical properties and dwellings will also be important in order to increase legal certainty for those who today experience property-related matters

The group will be an important resource for the participants themselves, but in the long term it could also make important contributions to society where ownership of property has more or less direct impact on the vast majority. We also aim to give significant contribution to those who need knowledge of property history in their work or have special fields of interest that require property history investigation. Another important goal is to engage students within several disciplines to see the benefit of property history knowledge in their education – up to today, property history is a far more relevant topic than many think.

The research group meets once each semester. Beyond the meetings, most of the activity will be in digital rooms. The digital workspace builds on three foundations; to reduce the climate impact, a desire to focus the work in the research group towards the primary sources and to be a contribution to the discussion of how future research groups can and should be organized.

The digital platform is available via the research group's blog (Norwegian). 

This opens for sharing of sources, discussions in internal forums, holding web-based presentations and for recording of presentations that later can be made available on the website. Large extracts are available on the website that is open to the public so that those who are interested can get a better insight and overview into working with property history sources.

Head of Research Group:

bilde av Lars August Hafting Kvestad

Lars August Hafting Kvestad

Associate Professor