STATEC

Unit SOC4: Price statistics

13, rue Erasme L-1468 Luxembourg

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.

Owner occupied dwellings.

Luxembourg.

Price indices are available from the 1st quarter of 2010 onwards.

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, and amending Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/1148.

Results are sent to Eurostat.

No information.

No information.

The OOHPI is not published on national level.

The OOHPI is not published on national level.

The OOHPI is not published on national level.

Quarterly (OOHPI) and annually (weights)

The OOHPI is not published on national level.

The OOHPI is not published on national level.

The OOHPI is not published on national level.

The OOHPI is not published on national level.

No access to microdata is granted.

Not applicable.

Methodological details of the price indices related to housing are published on STATEC’s website: Prix des logements - Statistiques - Luxembourg (public.lu)

Not applicable.

Micro-data on which the index is based are checked for outliers.

The quality of the OOH index is routinely reviewed using a framework that is based on the OOH technical manual and the European Statistical System (ESS) definition of quality.

The OOHPI is designed in order to be potentially integrated in HICP.

Not applicable, the OOHPI is not published on national level.

The series for the sub-indices 'Existing dwellings new to the household sector' and 'Other services related to ownership of dwellings' are currently not being compiled.

The overall accuracy of the price indices is good.

None. The indices are based on an exhaustive data base ('Publicité Foncière de l’Administration de l’Enregistrement et des Domaines'). As additional transactions become available from previous quarters, they are included. Hence revisions are possible.

Not applicable.

The OOHPI is not published on national level. 

Data should be sent to Eurostat at latest on the target day. A delay can occur due to unforeseen circumstances (sickness of people calculating the index, technical problems with the production system).

Price indices are aimed to be comparable with other house price indices developed in the European Statistical System in the context of the Owner-occupied housing regulation.

The series are comparable over time.

Internal coherence is assessed by comparison of HPI and OOHPI sub-indices for acquisition of dwellings.

Higher-level indices are compiled by aggregating the corresponding sub-indices.

Around 4 days per quarter is needed for the regular production and validation of the results, time of updating and improving the production system not included.

The indices are based on an exhaustive data base ('Publicité Foncière de l’Administration de l’Enregistrement et des Domaines'). As additional transactions become available from previous quarters, they are included. Hence revisions are possible.

Additional transactions are included, as they become available from previous quarters. Hence revisions are made the following quarter, and after that, the indices become definitive.

Data may also be revised due to methodological improvements.

See below.

The administrative data file 'Publicité Foncière de l’Administration de l’Enregistrement et des Domaines (AED)' is the data source for the price index for new dwellings and for the other services related to the acquisition of dwellings.

The construction price index is the data source for prices for self-builders, major renovations, major repairs and maintenance.

The index for insurance connected with the dwelling is compiled from the data from a dedicated survey.

National accounts are the major data provider for the weights, namely for new dwellings, self-builders, major renovations, major repairs and maintenance and insurance.

National accounts data used for the weights compilation is annually updated.

During month t, a data file is provided to STATEC with the transactions recorded at the AED during month t-1 and which covers notary acts signed during month t-1 and month t-2.

The construction price index is compiled twice per year.

The rates used to calculate the sub-index of the other services related to the acquisition of dwellings are monitored every quarter.

Data for insurances is collected through the dedicated survey every quarter.

The administrative data is transferred from the AED to STATEC as an XML file.

For the construction price index, the data is sent in the form of a paper questionnaire to the surveyed companies and returned to STATEC by post, and then encoded internally.

For insurance, the data is incorporated in an Excel file, which is sent to the contact people of the various surveyed insurance companies, filled and returned to STATEC by email.

'Purchase of new dwellings' and 'Other costs related to the acquisition of dwellings': During the production process, a number of data checks are performed. Statistical indicators are compiled for the different strata, which are not published but are used for validation purposes.

'Self-built dwellings and major renovations':  The Construction Price Index is calculated for April and October, but published only 3 months later. During that time period, the data is checked.

'Insurance connected with the dwelling': For the OOH insurance index, the replies to the electronic forms are checked and clarifications are asked whenever a reply raises questions.

See below.

See below.

OOHPI is a Laspeyres-type price index.

The different sub-series are linearly aggregated to obtain a price index that is consistent with the sub-indices.

For the weights, the expenditure 'Household Gross Fixed Capital Formation' (HGFCF) on dwellings of year y-2 is collected from the National Accounts. This value is then split between the sub-indices using other data sources.

One can derive the expenditure weight corresponding to the 'Other costs related to the acquisitions of dwellings' directly from house sales.  

The weight for 'Insurance connected with the dwelling' is based on the service charge estimated by the National Accounts.

This weight calculation is carried out yearly.

The raw expenditure of each item of the OOH system for year y-2 is then price-updated to the 4th quarter of year y-1 by using the corresponding index, which results in the weights that will be used for year y.

The sub-index series in base 100 equal to the 4th quarter of the previous year are linked with the corresponding long series (currently in base 100 in 2015) taking as a link the 4th quarter of the previous year.

See below.

Transfer of ownership.

VAT is included in the price of newly built dwellings.

Other taxes are not included in the price of dwellings.

The standard tax rate for the purchase of a real estate property (house, apartment, building land) is 7 %:

• 6 % for registration fees;
• 1 % for transcription fees.

To reduce the incidental expenses associated with the purchase of a dwelling, the Government has introduced a tax allowance—known as a tax credit—on registration and recording fees for anyone wishing to purchase a building (and certain outbuildings and attachments) for use as their personal residence.

This tax credit is limited to EUR 30,000 per property buyer and is subject to conditions of effective and personal occupancy of the property.

This tax credit is included in the calculation of the OOH index.

The amount taken into account is the full, total transaction price, which includes the land component.

Land component is also included in weights.

Housing cooperatives are not covered in the OOH.

Non-market transactions are not included in the OOH.

Multi-object transactions are not included in the calculation of the OOH.

Fractional transactions are not included in the calculation of the OOH.

See below.

The series used for items O.1.1.3 (Other services related to the acquisitions of dwellings) and O.1.2.2 (Insurance connected with the dwelling) are specifically produced for the OOH index.

Regarding the other services related to the acquisitions of dwellings, the “Publicité Foncière” database is also used as the basis to calculate the index, which is the aggregate of the three sub-indices, corresponding to each of the fees.

For each transaction of year t-1, the three fees are calculated by applying their respective schemes, as demonstrated in the example under section 2.1.3. The total of each fee is the base amount for year t.

Then the price of each transaction is updated using the corresponding HPI (either new or existing dwelling), with the 4^th quarter of t-1 as the reference period. Therefore, for instance, the updated price of each transaction in the 2^nd quarter of year t, named P_t,Q2 is given by:

P_t,Q2 = P_t-1 x HPI_t,Q2 / HPI_t-1,Q4

The three fees for the 2^nd quarter of year t are calculated by applying the fee schemes, which are fixed, to these updated transaction prices. This is done for all 4 quarters of year t. Then each sub-index is obtained by comparing the amounts corresponding to the 4 quarters to the base amount.

Afterwards, the sub-indices for each year are aggregated to obtain the “Other services related to the acquisitions of dwellings” index and then they are all chained to reconstitute the full series.

As far as the insurance connected with the dwelling is concerned, a specific survey has been carried out among the main insurance companies of the country since October 2013. For the two types of insurance covered by the OOH system, a number of representative profiles have been defined.

For the insurance on the dwelling’s structures, the 2011 census was used to determine the most representative houses and apartments. Regarding the insurance on the mortgage, the Household Finance and Consumption Survey was used to find out which types of mortgages were the most common (in terms of amount borrowed, duration, etc.).

An electronic form was then elaborated for each type of insurance, and is sent quarterly by e-mail to be filled by the contact people of the various surveyed insurance companies. They indicate, for each new quarter, the premium and the corresponding taxes. By comparing these amounts to those of the base period (October 2013), one can calculate an index series for each insurance type. The contact people also provided data for the previous periods, up to the beginning of year 2010.

The global index for OOH insurances is the weighted average of these two series, using their respective insurance services as weights.

Not applicable

No adjustments are applied.

Not applicable

Tax credit (see concept 18.5.2.4) is included in OOH.

Not applicable.

VAT is not included in the OOH sub-indices other than OOH sub-indices for purchases of newly built dwellings and existing dwellings new to households

No other adjustments other than the quality adjustment method (see 18.5.4.1) are used in OOH.

None.