Price index for new dwellings

Name: Price index for new dwellings
Topic: Prices and price indices

Division for Housing, Property, Spatial and Agricultural Statistics

National level

Quarterly. The statistics will be published about 80 days after the end of the quarter.

Price index for new multi-dwellings and new detached houses are aggregated to a Price index for new dwellings. This index will be transferred to Eurostat in accord with the regulation concerning the establishment of owner-occupied housing price index.

The price index for new dwellings and the price index for existing dwellings will be aggregated to a total house price index that also will be transferred to Eurostat.

Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.

Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.

The purpose of the index is to measure the price development of new dwellings.

Price Index for new dwellings consists of two different price indexes: Price index for new multi-dwellings and Price index new detached houses.

The Price Index for new multi-dwellings was first published in 2015, with a time series back to the first quarter of 2011.

Price index for new detached houses has been published since 1989 as an initiative by Finance Norway.

The price indexes are important indicators for housing constructors, financial institutions, government and others interested in the housing market. The housing price indices are also used for international comparison.

No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.

The price indices for new multi-dwellings and new detached houses are not fully coherent because the when the former measure the price on the sales point the latter measure the price at the completion date The sales point could refer to any point in the construction process, even before the actual construction starts.

The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).

Commission regulation (EU) 2020/1148 in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/792.

Multi-dwellings:

The population is all new multi-dwellings that are sold in the quarter.

Detached houses:

The population is all detached houses that are registered completed in the Cadastre during the quarter and registered in the "Register og Deeds". The same data is used in the calculation of average square meter prices for new detached houses.

Multi-dwellings:

Data is collected from a sample of construction companies and real estate developers. The sample should include the most important enterprises in the industry.

Detached houses:

The data are obtained from two governmental administrative registers: the Norwegian Cadastre and Register of Deeds (grunnboken). The Cadastre contains all completed buildings. The Register of Deeds provides price information, both sales price and plot value.

Data collection:

Multi-dwellings:

The information is collected electronically through the Altinn internet portal for public reporting. The reporting deadline for each quarterly reporting is the 25th day of the month following the end of the reporting period. Some information is withdrawn from the real estate register of sales of dwellings. This contains mainly existing dwellings, but some new dwelling is also registered here.

Detached houses:

Data from the Cadastre. As of the first quarter of 2020, there is no separate survey related to these statistics.

Editing and calculations:

Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data.

Multi-dwellings and detached houses:

For both examinations, extreme values are checked and removed if necessary.

The price indexes are calculated by hedonic method and by multivariable regression analysis. Price is the dependent variable in the regression analysis and the independent variables are for:

• Multi-dwellings: the size of the dwelling, geographic zone, dwelling type, ownership, garage and which floor the apartment is in (for apartment blocks).
• Detached house: size of the home, geographical location, whether the home has several housing units (rental unit), number of rooms, toilet and bathroom.

The price coefficients are revised every year with regression analyses based on the data base of the last two years. It provides a broader data basis for calculating the price coefficients and it is assumed that the regression coefficients are constant over this period.

The total price index for new dwellings is an aggregate that is weighted together by the price index for new detached houses and the price index for new multi-dwellings.

The indexes are calculated as chained indexes with annual links. The base is changed in the 1st quarter, with the previous year as a new base year.

Square meter prices:

Extreme values are checked and removed if necessary.

Average square meter prices are calculated for new detached houses. The data basis is the same as is used in the calculation of the price index for new detached houses. The price per square meter is calculated by dividing the sale price (with and without land) by the utility floor space.

Not relevant

Employees of Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality.

Statistics Norway does not publish figures if there is a risk of the respondent’s contribution being identified. This means that, as a general rule, figures are not published if fewer than three units form the basis of a cell in a table or if the contribution of one or two respondents constitutes a very large part of the cell total.

Statistics Norway can make exceptions to the general rule if deemed necessary to meet the requirements of the EEA agreement, if the respondent is a public authority, if the respondent has consented to this, or when the information disclosed is openly accessible to the public.

More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.

Multi-dwellings:

The index series goes back to the 1st quarter of 2011 and the same calculation method is used in this period.

Detached-house:

The index series dates to 1989. The index has previously been based on a survey as part of the data collection. As of the first quarter of 2021, the index is based on data from the Cadastral and Register of Deeds as a substitute for the form survey.

Square meter prices:

The square meter prices for new detached houses in table 13500 replace the closed table 03364.

As of 2021, the main source for calculating square meter prices has changed from a form survey to register data from the cadastre and grunnboken.

Price per square meter is calculated by dividing the price by the utility floor space. In table 03364 (closed time series), the useful floor space was used in the calculation of the price per square meter. The useful floor area measured within the outer walls, excluding cellars, non-habitable attics and, in multi-dwelling houses, common spaces. Useful floor space was estimated based on the usable area, based on avalaible data on the ratio between useful floor area and utility floor space (factor 0.7999). This change helps to lower the price per square meter as the area we use is larger than before.

These changes mean that the current square meter price for new detached houses (table 13500) area not directly comparable with the square meter prices for new detached houses in table 03364 (closed time series). Furthermore, there are somewhat fewer observation now compared to earlier. This means that the figures can not be presented at county level as before, but are replaced by a regional table.

Multi-dwellings:

Enterprises that have sales information on new dwellings can belong to different industries. There may be cooperation between enterprises and sometimes new enterprises are established because of a housing project. Since the dwellings sometimes lack a unique identification code early in the construction phase, duplicates may occur.

Enterprises may report erroneous data. Observations with unlikely extreme values are examined.

There will be a certain amount of non-responses in formbased surveys. In this survey the per cent of non-response is below 5, which is considered to have minimal impact of the results. Partial non-respons may also occur, and in most cases the enterprise then will be re-contacted.

The share of the total population that is covered by the sample, is estimated to vary between 22 and 36 per cent from 2011 to 2014. However, this estimate is uncertain because the exact number of transactions of new dwellings is unknown.

Detached houses:

Observations with unlikely extreme values, such as incorrect registration in the Cadastre are reviewed and possibly removed.

Due to registration delays in the Cadastre, not all detached houses registered as completed during the quarter in question are completed during this quarter. Average delay measured in 2020 was 0.7 months. Municipalities can make mistakes when registering data. There are also municipalities that, for various reasons, do not always follow the current registration rules in the Cadastre. It may also happen that buildings are incorrectly classified, i.e. that a detached house has been given another type of building classification in the register. These detached houses will then not be included in the calculations.

Information provided in connection with the registration of real estate is assumed to be reliable. However, incorrect classification of, for example, type of property and type of dwelling may occur. There may be some delay in registration. Detached houses that are not registered until 4-5 weeks after the end of the quarter in which the house was registered finished in the Cadastre will not be included in the calculation.

Not relevant