Statistics Finland

Social statistics, Housing and construction

Työpajankatu 13, PO box 5 C, Helsinki, FI-00022 Finland

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 OOHPI comprises all purchases made by private households within the economic territory of Finland.

The Finnish OOHPI covers the whole country.

The OOHPI for Finland is available from 2010 onwards.

The base period is 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.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1470 of 17 July 2023 laying down the methodological and technical specifications in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/792 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the house price index and the owner-occupied housing price index.

There is no institutional mandate for data sharing. 

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 11 March 2009, on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

Access to microdata is limited to only certain staff members of Statistics Finland.

The OOHPI is sent to Eurostat quarterly 85 days after the reference period.

The data of Finnish OOHPI is available on Eurostat's Internet pages: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/housing-price-statistics.

The data of Finnish OOHPI is available on Eurostat's Internet pages: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/housing-price-statistics.

Quarterly (OOHPI) and annually (weights)

The national publication of OOHPI was discontinued in 2018. A regular news release on OOHPI subindices of newly built apartments (O.1.1.1.1) are published quarterly on the Statistics Finland website https://www.stat.fi/en/statistics/ashi.

The total OOHPI's are published on the Eurostat home page http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/housing-price-statistics.

The total OOHPI's are published on the Eurostat home page http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/housing-price-statistics

The national publications can be found: 

• new multi-unit dwellings: https://www.stat.fi/en/statistics/ashi
• new single-unit dwellings: https://www.stat.fi/en/statistics/kihi
  
• other services from national CPI: https://www.stat.fi/en/statistics/khi
  

The time series of subindices of OOHPI are published on the following:

The database of new multi-unit dwellings is available on the Statistics Finland website https://pxweb2.stat.fi/PxWeb/pxweb/en/StatFin/StatFin__ashi/.

The database of new single-unit dwellings is available on the Statistics Finland website https://pxweb2.stat.fi/PxWeb/pxweb/en/StatFin/StatFin__kihi/.

Some subindices that are directly from national CPI are available on the Statistics Finland website https://pxweb2.stat.fi/PxWeb/pxweb/en/StatFin/StatFin__khi/.

Access to microdata is very limited and the user needs to request for a licence to use the data. Licensees are usually government affiliated research institutes and not private persons or private companies. If the licence is granted, the data is treated so that no single purchase of dwelling or detached house is recognisable. More information about service practices are available on the website http://www.stat.fi/tup/hallinnolliset/index_en.html.

There is no other format for dissemination. 

Documentation on methodology is available on the Statistics Finland website:

• New dwellings in blocks of flats and terraced houses: 

  https://www.stat.fi/en/statistics/documentation/ashi. A more detailed methodological description: uudet_kerros_ja_rivitalohuoneistot_menetelmaraportti.pdf (stat.fi)

• New detached houses: https://www.stat.fi/en/statistics/documentation/kihi
  
  
• OOHPI: Statistics Finland - Quality Description: Indices of owner-occupied housing prices

See 10.6 for quality management documentation. 

Statistics Finland follows the principles of the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) model in its activity. The agency is a key corporate member of Excellence Finland.

Statistics Finland observes the European Statistics Code of Practice and Quality Assurance Framework approved by the European Commission and supports other producers of Official Statistics of Finland in their development of quality and implementation of the Code and QAF. Statistics Finland also organises training in matters related to the quality of statistics and quality development.

The quality principles and good practices of statistical work have been gathered into the handbook Quality Guidelines for Official Statistics which is updated at regular intervals of a couple of years (http://tilastokeskus.fi/org/periaatteet/laadun_periaatteet_en.html).

Quality management assesments are not available.

Used for comparison of price development of owner-occupied housing between EU countries. Users: ECB, press, others.

User satisfaction is not available for the OOHPI.

The data of transactions of new dwellings in blocks of flats and terraced houses covers about 70% of all transactions made by households. The price data for new detached houses are collected from the biggest companies in the market. Other price data is based on data collected for the purposes of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Prices for insurances and real estate agents are collected from all the main operators in Finland. Prices for major repairs are based on sampled data providers.  

The OOHPI is considered fairly accurate because the data sources are comprehensive and cover the whole country. Data are carefully scrutinized and sound methodologies are used in compiling the indices.

Sampling error is not available.

Non-sampling error is not available.

The data are sent to Eurostat quarterly approximately 85 days after the reference period.

There have been no delays in dissemination of the indices during the past years.

The OOHPI is not compiled separately for different regions.

In 2014 and before the weight of O.1.2.1 (Major repairs and maintenance) was based on Household Budget Survey and starting from 2015 to statistics on Renovation Building.

The price indices are comparable over time starting from 2015. In 2020, the methodology for compiling the indices of new dwellings in blocks of flats and terraced houses was updated and the OOHPI was revised accordingly. Backdata starting from 2015 was calculated to form a comparable time series.

The HPI and OOHPI sub-indices for newly built dwellings are the same. 

All figures are checked for internal consistency.

The employment cost is approximately 25 working days/year. There is approximately 2 full time equilivent persons working on HPI/OOH in Statistics Finland.

The OOHPI data is final on the first release. The data are subject to revisions in case of errors or when a methodological improvement is introduced.

The methodology of sub-indices concerning the purchases on new dwellings in blocks of flats and terraced houses was updated in 2020 and the indices were revised accordingly starting from 2015. Regarding the OOHPI indices for 2014, an error was found and corrected.

See below.

New dwellings in blocks of flats and terraced houses: The price data are based on data collected by a private price monitoring service on transactions of new dwellings made by the largest real estate agents and building contractors and Statistics Finland's own data collection.

New detached houses: The price data is based on data collected by a private price monitoring service on various building materials. Additionally, indices on other building costs are used as components when compiling the index for new detached houses.

Other goods and services: Price data collected for the compilation of the CPI is used.

The weights for the OOH-series are based on Consumer Price Index, coicop group 04.6, excluding asset transfer tax. 

The price data for dwellings are mostly collected by external operators and then bought by Statistics Finland. Other price data are collected directly from the respondents. Response burden is considered to be fairly low.

Data are collected quarterly.

Data are received/collected in an electronic format.

Data are carefully validated before index compilation. The validation process covers the following checks:

1. Prices which are considered too high or too low (e.g. errors in data, non-market price transactions)
2. Missing values for observations
3. Statistics (e.g. number of transactions observed)

See below.

See below.

OOHPI is a Laspeyres-type price index.

Sub-indices are aggregated to a total OOHPI according to Laspeyres formula. 

Weights:

• New dwellings in blocks of flats and terraced houses:
  For new apartments the weights are based on the transactions of new apartments
• New detached houses:
  Weights are calculated by a private monitoring service, that is considered to be the best source available on the subject and have the best knowledge of the market and the weight structure.

For the total OOHPI, the weights are updated annually and the indices are chained accordingly. The weights between OOHPI sub-indices are from CPI. In 2015 and before the weight of O.1.2.1 was based on Household Budget Survey and starting from 2016 to statistics on Renovation Building. Sub-index and elementary index weights for OOH are derived according to the HICP-manual recommendations and the HICP regulations.

The weight reference period is t-1. 

The OOHPI is calculated as a price change between current quarter and previous year’s last quarter and then chained from previous year’s index to current index using this change.

See below.

First binding contract.

VAT is included in the price of newly built dwellings.

Other taxes are not included in the price of dwellings.

Government subsidised new dwellings are included and cannot be separated from the data.

The price of the land is included in the price of new dwelling. Price of of the land is not included in the weights. 

Housing cooperatives are included.

Transactions between family members are omitted when possible, as well as price regulated apartments. Transactions with unusually low or high price are omitted as well. 

Multi-object transactions are included, if each appartment has their own price. 

Fractional transactions are not included in the OOHPI.

See below.

Elementary aggregates are based on geometric means.

The replacements for the missing estate agents' commission fees are done according to the HICP manual. Aim is to replace with comparable fee, thus no quality difference between replaced and replacement product (fee). 

Quality adjustment is not used.

 In case estate agents' commission fee is temporarily missing, then it is imputed using price development of the other commodities belonging to same sub-class.

No discounts or inducements included.

Zero prices are treated according to HICP manual. 

The VAT is included for the HICP as such. 

The indices are adjusted for quality differences. For new dwellings in blocks of flats and terraced houses, hedonic models are used.

None.