Statistical Service of Cyprus (CYSTAT) 

Prices

Statistical Service of Cyprus

CY-1444

Nicosia

Cyprus

The OOHPI is based on the ‘net acquisitions’ approach, which measures changes in prices paid by households for the acquisition of dwellings that are new to the household sector and changes in other costs related to the ownership, and transfer of ownership, of dwellings.

The OOHPI is broken down into the following expenditure categories:

• O.1. Owner-occupiers’ housing expenditure;
  • O.1.1. Acquisitions of dwellings;
    • O.1.1.1. New dwellings;
      • O.1.1.1.1. Purchases of newly built dwellings;
      • O.1.1.1.2. Self-build dwellings and major renovations;
    • O.1.1.2. Existing dwellings new to households;
    • O.1.1.3. Other services related to the acquisition of dwellings;
  • O.1.2. Ownership of dwellings;
    • O.1.2.1. Major repairs and maintenance;
    • O.1.2.2. Insurance connected with dwellings;
    • O.1.2.3. Other services related to ownership of dwellings.

Households which are owner occupiers.

The main statistical variables are price indices.

The basic unit of statistical observation are transaction prices of dwellings new to the household sector and of other products that the households acquire in their role as owner-occupiers.

The owner occupied dwellings represent the Statistical population.

Government controlled areas of the Republic of Cyprus.

There is not any regional analysis of the OOHPI.

Time series on OOHPI starts from 2010.

2015=100

The following units are used:

- Index point;
- Percentage change on the same period of the previous year (rates);
- Percentage change on the previous period (rates);
- Percentage share of the total (weights).

OOHPI is a quarterly statistics.

The EU legal act relating to the OOHPI is the Commission Regulation (EU) 2016/792  on harmonised indices of consumer prices and the house price index and repealing Council Regulation (EC) No 2494/95. 

The relevant piece of legislation is EU regulation 2023/1470.  The national legal act relating to the OOHPI is the  National Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021.

Article 3 of the national Official Statistics Law, No. 25(I) of 2021 defines the functions of the Statistical Service of Cyprus regarding the production and dissemination of official statistics. Moreover, Article 13, explicitly stipulates the mandate for data collection and introduces a mandatory response to statistical enquiries by stipulating the obligation of respondents to reply to surveys and provide the data required. This relates not only to national but also to European statistics which, by virtue of Article 8 of the said Law, are incorporated in the annual and multiannual programmes of work without any further procedure.

None.

Official statistics are released in accordance to all confidentiality provisions of the following:

• National Official Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021 (especially Article 16 on statistical confidentiality).
• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2009 on European statistics and its later amendments (especially Chapter 5 on statistical confidentiality).
• European Statistics Code of Practice (especially Principle 5 on statistical confidentiality).
• Guidelines for the Protection of Confidential Data.

Links to all of the above documents should be attached (or the actual documents):

• Official Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021:

https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/StaticPage?id=1074  

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (consolidated text):

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:02009R0223-20150608&qid=1504858409240&from=EN

• European Statistics Code of Practice:

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-32-11-955

• Guidelines for the Protection of Confidential Data:

 https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/StaticPage?id=1066

The treatment of confidential data is regulated by CYSTAT's Code of Practice for the Collection, Publication and Storage of Statistical Data.

The link is given below:

https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/StaticPage?id=1066

Notifications about the dissemination of statistics are published in the release calendar, which is available on CYSTAT’s web portal. The annual release calendar, announced during the 4^th quarter of the year, includes provisional dates of publication for the following year, which are finalized the week before publication. 

Link to CYSTAT’s release calendar:

https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/AnnouncementList

According to the Dissemination and Pricing Policy of the Statistical Service of Cyprus (section 2.3) CYSTAT΄s main channel for dissemination of statistics is the website, which offers the same conditions to everyone and is updated at the same time every working day (12:00 noon). Privileged pre-released access (of no more than 1 day in advance) has been granted to a few selected users for specific statistics. These are specified in the Dissemination Policy (section 2.3).

 In addition to the annual release calendar, users are informed of the various statistical releases through the “Alert” service provided by CYSTAT.

• Dissemination and Pricing Policy of the Statistical Service of Cyprus:

                https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/StaticPage?id=1064

Quarterly (OOHPI) and annually (weights)

Not applicable.

Not applicable

Eurostat's database provides free access to OOHPI data.

Statistical micro-data from CYSTAT’s surveys are accessible for research purposes only and under strict provisions as described below:

Under the provisions of the Statistics Law, CYSTAT may release microdata for the sole use of scientific research. Applicants have to submit the request form "APPLICATION FOR DATA FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES" giving thorough information on the project for which micro-data are needed.

The application is evaluated by CYSTAT’s Confidentiality Committee and if the application is approved, a charge is fixed according to the volume and time consumed for preparation of the data. Micro-data may then be released after an anonymisation process which ensures no direct identification of the statistical units but, at the same time, ensures usability of the data. The link for the application is attached below.

https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/DataRequestContactForm?fid=7

None.

OOHPI methodology is available on Eurostat’s website.

Not available.

The quality of statistics in CYSTAT is managed in the framework of the European Statistics Code of Practice which sets the standards for developing, producing and disseminating European Statistics as well as the ESS Quality Assurance Framework (QAF). CYSTAT endorses the Quality Declaration of the European Statistical System. In addition, CYSTAT is guided by the requirements provided for in Article 11 of the Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021 as well as Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics, which sets out the quality criteria to be applied in the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.

•  European Statistics Code of Practice:

                 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/KS-32-11-955

• ESS Quality Assurance Framework (QAF):

                 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/64157/4392716/ESS-QAF-V1-2final.pdf/bbf5970c-1adf-46c8-afc3-58ce177a0646

• Quality Declaration of the European Statistical System:

                http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/4031688/8188985/KS0217428ENN_corr.pdf/116f7c85-cd3e-4bff-b695-4a8e71385fd4

• Official Statistics Law No. 25(I) of 2021:

                 https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/StaticPage?id=1074

• Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (consolidated text):

                http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:02009R0223-20150608&qid=1504858409240&from=EN

The methodology used for the compilation of the OOHPI takes into consideration the framework described in the Technical manual on Owner-Occupied Housing and House Price Indices. 

• Technical manual on Owner-Occupied Housing and House Price Indices:

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/7590317/0/Technical-Manual-OOH-HPI-2017/

One of the main problems for the compilation of the index is that the input data and figures obtained from other sectors of CYSTAT (e.g. the average cost per house and the number of new houses from the Building Permits) refer to the year t-2.

The OOHPI interests all the users that follow the developments in the house price market.

Since 2008 (with the exception of 2010, 2013 and 2020) CYSTAT carries out an annual online “Users Satisfaction Survey”. The results of the surveys are available on CYSTAT’s website at the link attached below.

 Overall, the users of statistical data published by CYSTAT are satisfied.

Results of CYSTAT’s User Satisfaction Surveys:  https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/StaticPage?id=1144

The Owner-Occupied Housing Price Index and all required sub-indices are transmitted to Eurostat quarterly.

No estimates for overall accuracy of OOHPI are produced.

Not applicable.

No estimates of non-sampling errors are produced.

It is produced 80-85 days after the end of the reference period.

OOHPI is transmitted to Eurostat within 85 days after the end of the reference period.

Not available.

There are no breaks in continuity since the start of production.

HPI for all dwellings and HPI for newly built dwellings are used as an input for OOHPI.  Hence, OOHPI and sub-indices are checked for coherence with HPI and HPI for newly built dwellings.

OOHPI is internally coherent. Higher level aggregations are derived from detailed indices using an SPSS code.

The is no burden on respondents since data from other surveys, administrative sources and external sources are used. 

A data revision policy is in place at CYSTAT. It is published on CYSTAT’s web portal, at the following link:

https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/StaticPage?id=1072

CYSTAT also publishes a list of scheduled revisions (regular or major revisions), also published on its web portal, at the following link:

 https://www.cystat.gov.cy/en/AnnouncementList

A revision of OOHPI is carried out once a year using all revised data available.

See below.

For the compilation of OOHPI, data from surveys and indices  produced at CYSTAT as well as from external services/organizations are used. Construction Statistics (number of new houses, average cost per house, major repairs and Output Price Index in Construction), income from Services and Transport Survey for a specific nace code, sales and contracts of sales obtained from the Department of Lands and Surveys and the House Price Index are used. Additionally, data from the website of the Insurance Association of Cyprus are used.

For the compilation of OOHPI weights, data from surveys and administrative sources as well as from external services/organizations are used.

Data are collected quarterly.

Input data are collected from the Department of Lands and Surveys, the Insurance Association of Cyprus and other sectors of CYSTAT.

The inputs of OOHPI are indices and amounts prepared by other sectors of CYSTAT, the Insurance Association of Cyprus and the Department of Lands and Surveys. For the compilation of OOHPI and sub-indices, an SPSS code is used. A validation file with consistency tests is used to verify that there are no inconsistencies.

See below.

See below.

OOHPI is a Laspeyres-type price index.

The percentage changes of current quarter in comparison with the 4^th quarter of the previous year are calculated and aggregated using weights.

see 18.5.4

The weights reference period is t-1

OOHPI is a change-linked index

See below.

First binding contract.

VAT is included in the price of newly built dwellings.

Other taxes are included in the price of dwellings.

No special treatment.

The value of land is excluded from the weight of category O.1.1.1.1

Housing cooperatives are not included.

Non-market transactions such as inheritances are not included in the analysis

Transactions that include more than one property are singled out by property

Fractional transactions are excluded

See below.

The percentage changes of current quarter in comparison with the 4^th quarter of the previous year are calculated and aggregated using weights.

Not applicable.

A Rolling window hedonic model is used for the sub-indices O.1.1.1.1 and O.1.1.3

The are no transaction with missing prices in the DLS (Department of Lands and Surveys) files

not applicable

Transactions with zero prices are excluded from the analysis 

See 18.5.2.

No seasonal adjustment is made.

None.