Statistics Netherlands (SN)

Bussinessstatistics The Hague

Henri Faasdreef 312, 2492 JP Den Haag

The output price index of newly built dwellings, 2015 = 100, shows cost developments of residential buildings. These series is based on all types of dwellings. Building costs are the costs paid to the building contractor, and thus include general costs, profit and risk, but exclude the costs of building land and project developers and brokers.

Nace rev2

Activities covered:The ‘New dwellings; output price indices building costs 2015 = 100’ covers the whole residential building construction sector. It does not cover site preparation, repair and maintenance. The covered activities fall under NACE Rev. 2 section F, Construction, Groups 41.20.

Size classes covered:The price index covers all newly built houses in the Netherlands.

List and definition of variables: The output price index shows the evolution of the building costs of residential buildings using a hedonic method. The main variables that are used are cubic volume, number of dwellings in the plan, type of principal, rental or ownership and type of soil.

Planned changes in information collected: There are no planned changes in data collection.

Accounting conventions: The average of building costs of the year 2016 is calculated to be the base period. The output price index is calculated every quarter and indicates the flow during the quarter.

Reporting unit:There is no Reporting unit. We're using data that's already avialable at Statistics Netherlands.

Observation unit(s):Newly built dwellings

Newly built dwellings.

The geographical area covered is the Netherlands.

The first year was 1995.

The base period is 2015. This is the reference period of the index. The weighting schemes are based on the year 2016.

Output price indices building costs

Quarterly indices

Statistics Netherlands is fully independent in terms of its statistical operations with respect to methodology and publications. Independence was granted by the Royal Act of 1899 and reconfirmed by law in 1996 and 2003. The CBS Law of 2003 is available in English and Dutch. The public can find it at the CBS website (https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/over-ons/organisatie/jaarverslag/statistics-netherlands-act). The Law of 2003 established the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Central Commission for Statistics. Section 3 states: “The task of the CBS is to carry out statistical research for the government for practice, policy and research purposes and to publish the statistics compiled on the basis of such research". For the surveys carried out under the provisions of the Law of 2003 irregularities with respect the obligation to provide information can be punished with a fine of a maximum of EUR 5,000.None

The Law of 2003 established the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Central Commission for Statistics. Section 3 states: “The task of the CBS is to carry out statistical research for the government for practice, policy and research purposes and to publish the statistics compiled on the basis of such research". Sections 33 through 36 describe the collection of information, sections 37 and 38 describe the use of information gathering and sections 39 through 42 the dissemination of results. The most relevant clauses are the following. Section 33: “The director general is authorised to use, for statistical purposes, data from registers (..) the director general is authorised to request, for statistical purposes, data (..) from the categories of companies, independent professionals, institutions and legal persons (..).” Section 37: “The data (..) shall be used solely for statistical purposes. The data (..)shall only be published in such a way that no recognisable data can be derived from them about an individual person, household, company or institution, unless, (..) there are good reasons to assume that the company or institution concerned will not have any objections to the publication.” The CBS Law of 2003 is available in English and Dutch. The public can find it at the CBS website (https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/over-ons/organisatie/jaarverslag/statistics-netherlands-act).

These figures are only sent to Eurostat.

Statistics Netherlands is fully independent in terms of its statistical operations with respect to methodology and publications. Independence was granted by the Royal Act of 1899 and reconfirmed by law in 1996 and 2003. Data provision was made compulsory by law in 1936. Confidentiality is guaranteed. Individual data are never published without consent. The Royal Act of 1899 and the Law of 1996 have been repealed by the Law of 20 November 2003. This Law on the Central Bureau of Statistics describes the independence of the director-general of Statistics Netherlands: “The director general shall determine the methods by which the studies included in the work programme and the multi-annual programme will be carried out and the manner in which the results of those studies will be published”. The Law of 2003 established the Central Bureau of Statistics and the Central Commission for Statistics. Section 3 states: “The task of the CBS is to carry out statistical research for the government for practice, policy and research purposes and to publish the statistics compiled on the basis of such research". Sections 33 through 36 describe the collection of information, sections 37 and 38 describe the use of information gathering and sections 39 through 42 the dissemination of results. The most relevant clauses are the following. Section 33: “The director general is authorised to use, for statistical purposes, data from registers (..) the director general is authorised to request, for statistical purposes, data (..) from the categories of companies, independent professionals, institutions and legal persons (..).” Section 37: “The data (..) shall be used solely for statistical purposes. The data (..) shall only be published in such a way that no recognisable data can be derived from them about an individual person, household, company or institution, unless, (..) there are good reasons to assume that the company or institution concerned will not have any objections to the publication.” The CBS Law of 2003 is available in English and Dutch. The public can find it at the CBS website (https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/over-ons/organisatie/jaarverslag/statistics-netherlands-act).

The price indices are not confidential.

A rolling 5 month-ahead release calendar is published in the schedule by date of Statistics Netherlands. When approximate release dates are given, the precise dates are announced on the last working day of the week prior to the release.

https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/publication-calendar

Simultaneous release to all interested parties: Data are released simultaneously to all interested parties by issuing a press release through the internet website of Statistics Netherlands (https://opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS/en/dataset/83908ENG/table?ts=1587131763386 ).

Identification of internal government access to data before release: There is no internal government access to the data before their release to the public.

Transmission to Eurostat and further use of the statistics: As soon as the figures are published on the internet, they are also provided to Eurostat. 

Quarterly

There is no ministerial commentary on the occasion of the release of the data. Further there is no news release.

Name of national paper publications: The indices are not published in paper publications

Name of national electronic dissemination: The indices are published on the internet (https://opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS/en/?fromstatweb).

You can find the online database by using the link: https://opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS/en/dataset/83908ENG/table?dl=37D8B 

There is no user access to microdata

The data are transmitted quarterly to Eurostat and disseminated quarterly to national users by our online database Statline.

Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics: Documentation of the used methodology is published on the internet (https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/our-services/methods/surveys/korte-onderzoeksbeschrijvingen/new-dwellings-output-price-indices-building-costs-2015-100).

Description of standard tables produced: The first release of the indices is published on the internet. The published indices have no level of breakdown of the results. They are published for the Netherlands as a whole.

There are internal quality reports that are used for the validation of the data to be published every quarter. There is no general report available describing the different quality indicators of these statistics.

There are different policies and procedures guarantying quality. Statical improvements are reviewed by an independent department. There is also a list of methods that have been accepted as best practice. New statistics should use these methods or only deviate with good reasons. Every quarter the results of STS statistics are validated by a independent statistician.

The quality of the STS statistics are considered good. All quality aspects for STS statistics have been covered.

STS provide statistical information necessary to monitor the competitiveness and performance of the business community in the EU. The STS are used by different users (European Commission and ECB, national governments and central banks, economic analysts in private companies and financial institutions) and serve different purposes.

Not available

The index is complete. There are no gaps or missing data parts and the series are according to the requirements of Eurostat.

The statistical errors are considered small. However it is an external source.

It is a census. This series is based on all derived building permits in the Netherlands.

Response rate: The response rate of the building permits a month after the reference month is about 70%. The source is from an other department within SN, they got the data from the muncipalities. In that data, the building permits, there is also information about the costs (price information). Further there is a difference between the release date of the permit and the reporting date. For that reason SN can get information at a later point and we will revice the data then.

Actions to speed up or increase the rate of response: To increase the response rate, telephone contact with the respondents is made.

Timeliness: The figures are published on the internet approximately 1 quarter after the end of the reference period.

Timetable of data collection: We use data that is already available at SN. The data becomes available for calculations of the index approximately 10 weeks after the end of the reference period.

All releases are published according to the release calendar.

The STS Regulations and the STS methodological guidelines are applied by the countries transmitting STS data. This ensures a good comparability between national data and good-quality European aggregates. However, the data are not 100% comparable with other countries. Each country may apply different collection methods (surveys, use of administrative sources) and different calculation procedures for the data. Within the Netherlands, no seperate geographical data is compiled, thus there is no comparability between regions.

The time series from 2013 on should be comparable over time, since no major changes in methodology or sources have been implemented in that period.

Before 2013 there are other series with another base year. All the series are linked to one historical series with reference year 2000.
https://opendata.cbs.nl/statline/#/CBS/en/dataset/80334eng/table?dl=1E150
These time series shoould also be comparable over time.

Dissemination of information that support statistical cross-checks and provide assurance of reasonableness: Not applicable

Confrontation with other data sets: The data are compared with construction costs, every quarter we compare the input price index building costs, with the output price index building costs. In the last one the building costs are the costs paid to the building contractor, and thus include general costs, profit and risk, but exclude the costs of building land and project developers and brokers.
Since the crises the input price index still rises, whereas the output price index decreases.

Not applicable (only one series.)

Not applicable (we use data that is already available at SN). The persons hours per year for SN is about 500 hours.

The figures are published at the end of a quarter following the reporting quarter. The figures remain preliminary four quarters before they become definite. There is no database for revisions and corrections.

Major changes in methodology are communicated centrally in advance. They are also briefly explained in the press releases and table explanations of the web-database (Statline) at the moment of publication using the new methodology.

Conforming to policy.

Type of source: The index is based on an administrative source.

Frame on which the source is based: The source is based on the building permits issued by the municipalities.

Sample or census: The survey is carried out exhaustively.

Frequency of updating the sample: The series is based on an average dwelling of 2016. This average dwelling is updated every five years.

The data collection is monthly. The index is calculater quarterly.

Questionnaires used in the survey: Not applicable. The index is based on data that is already available at SN.

Planned changes in national questionnaires: Not applicable.

Data collection media: There is a direct access to a database where we extract the data on a regular base.

Planned changes in data collection methodology: Not applicable.

The results of STS construction are presented in r and excel-datatables and graphs. The validity of the results is done by examing the tables and graphs. Further the datastructure is checked by the program SDMX.

Estimates for non-response: There is no special treatment for non response.

Estimates for grossing-up to population levels: The results are not grossed up.

Type of index: It's a Laspeyres index

Method of weighting and chaining: The index is calculated by comparing the average price of an adjusted dwelling in the reference period with the price of an average dwelling in the base period. The output price index shows the evolution of the building costs of residential buildings. On the basis of analyses by the hedonic method, the building costs per building plan are adjusted for differences in design according to an average dwelling in the base period. The hedonic method is based on the fact that every element of the dwelling has its own influence on the price of the dwelling. With the aid of multiple regression the importance of that influence is calculated and adjusted. The ratio between the reference period and the base period gives the index.

Planned changes in production methods: There are no changes planed.

There are no manipulations made on the data. Two indices are compiled, one including VAT and one excluding VAT.

None