Prices per square metre of detached houses

The price: What the investor or purchaser has to pay for a used or new detached house, including site value, but excluding other costs such as connection to road, water and sewer services, duties and administrative fees, and interest on building loans. VAT is included in the price.

Useful floor space: The floor area measured within the outer walls, excluding cellars, non-habitable attics and, in multi-dwelling houses, common spaces. Precise definition can be found in Norwegian Standard NS 3940 Area and volume calculations of buildings.

Utility floor space: The floor area measured within the outer walls, defined in Norwegian Standard NS 3940 Area and volume calculations of buildings.

Price per square meter: Calculated by dividing the price by the useful floor space.

Counties: Prices per square meter are calculated for each of the 19 counties.

Cities: Prices per square meter are also calculated for the three most populous municipalities outside Oslo: Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim.

Name: Prices per square metre of detached houses

Topic: Prices and price indices

Division for Housing, Property, Spatial and Agricultural Statistics

County, and the municipalities of Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim.

Annually. Figures are published 13 weeks after the end of the reference period.

Data at the dwelling level are stored as text files on UNIX.

The purpose of the statistics are to show the price differences between used and new detached houses. The statistics has been published since 1999.

The statistics is directed toward users with an interest in the housing market, including private persons, different research institutions and the media.

Principles for equal treatment

No external users have access to the statistics and analyses before they are published and accessible simultaneously for all users on ssb.no at 10 am. Prior to this, a minimum of three months' advance notice is given inthe Statistics Release Calendar.

The data used in these statistics are the same as those used in the production of the house price index and the price index for new detached houses . Information from detached houses completed in the Building statistics is used.

The Statistics Act § 2-1, § 2-2 and § 3-2.

Used detached houses: All detached houses sold on the open market during the year in question.

New detached houses: All detached houses completed during the year in question.

Used detached houses: Statistics Norway receives data from FINN.no, through cooperation with the Association of Real Estate Norway. Real Estate Norway represents more than 400 real estate agencies in Norway. The sample is all detached houses sold through FINN.no

New detached houses: The data for computing the price index are obtained from two different sources: the Norwegian cadastre and a quarterly survey. The cadastre provides information on dwellings completed during the reference period; location, utility floor space and who the owner is. Through the survey Statistics Norway collect information about prices and quality characteristics that may have an influence on the price. This is a complete census.

Used detached houses: Data from Finn.no are delivered monthly.

New detached houses: A questionnaire is distributed quarterly to all investors (final owners) of new detached houses.

The form-based survey is scanned optically. Mathematical and logical controls are incorporated in the data entry procedure. Machine control eliminates houses with very high or low square metre prices or areas.

Average prices per square meter for used and new detached houses are calculated. The price is calculated using the useful floor space.

Used detached houses

Ending the 4th quarter of 2001, data for used freeholder dwellings were collected in a similar way as the data that are used for new detached houses. Forms were distributed to purchasers of freeholder dwellings, and prices per square meter were calculated using all sales where the sales contract was signed during the quarter in question. Information from the forms was combined with information from the former cadastre, the GAB-register.

Until the 4th quarter of 2001 we used the utility floor space in the calculation of square meter prices. Now we use the useful floor space for this purpose. As a result, prices before and after 2002 are not comparable.

New detached houses

Useful floor space is no longer included on the form. Until 2001, however, both useful floor space and utility floor space was included. As a result we have chosen to use this information to calculate a factor, which can be used to estimate the useful floor space. The factor is 0.7999, which means that, on average, useful floor space is slightly less than 80 per cent of the utility floor space.

New detached houses: It may happen that the respondent misunderstands one or more of the questions on the form. The forms are read optically with automatic verification and transfer to electronic storage. Errors can occur during the optical scanning, particularly when reading figures consisting of many digits. Machine controls ensure, however, correspondence between partial costs and total costs, and that detached houses with very high or low square metre prices are not included in the calculation of square meter prices.

Used detached houses

None.

New detached houses

Non-response will always be a factor in form-based surveys, such as this. This is due to respondents that either do not return the forms or return them filled out incompletely. Response rate at the expiration of the deadline is about 45 per cent. Following reminders it climbs to 75 per cent. Data from the form are used as long as key variables are given.

Used detached houses

The statistics are based on data from FINN.no, and cover a majority of all used dwellings sold in Norway. Nonetheless it is possible that there is systematic sample skewness with regard to geography and/or building types.

New detached houses

The population is all detached houses completed during the year. The numbers have no sample variance or sample skewness.

Local authorities have the responsibility for updating the cadastre. The registering can be insufficient and of bad quality. Buildings may be incorrectly classified, i.e. that a detached house has been given another type of building classification in the register. It is also possible that other types of buildings are incorrectly classified as detached houses. The respondent will usually give notice in these cases. Furthermore, due to registration delays in the cadastre, not all detached houses registered as completed during the quarter in question will actually be completed during the quarter. Detached houses that are not actually completed during the quarter in question or previous quarter are not included.