Temporal Ownership as an Autonomous Form of Property: The Catalan Model in European Perspective

European legal systems increasingly rely on tenure diversification and intermediate forms between full ownership and renting. This article analyses Catalan temporal ownership ( propiedad temporal ) – introduced into the Catalan Civil Code by Law 19/2015- as a codified form of time-limited ownership that allocates an ownership title for a fixed term while preserving the holder’s core faculties of use and disposal and ensuring an automatic transfer to a successive holder at expiry. The article’s central claim is that temporal ownership should be treated as an autonomous, standardised property right rather than as ordinary ownership constrained by a private-law deadline. Temporal ownership demonstrates that civil-law ownership need not be conceptually perpetual in order to remain systemically compatible with European property law principles. The analysis tests the institution’s systemic fit with the core principles of European civil-law property systems, including numerus clausus and transparency, nemo dat , priority rules, and the relationship between ownership and limited property rights, and it addresses its constitutional compatibility within the Spanish legal system. The Catalan model is then situated within a broader European landscape of long-term proprietary positions by comparing it with German Erbbaurecht , Dutch erfpacht , the French bail réel solidaire , or the Anglo-American leasehold. It is also argued that the limited use of temporal ownership in practice is primarily driven by practical constraints (finance, housing culture, and professional routines) rather than by doctrinal impossibility.