National Institute of Statistics (INS), Romania

Price Statistics Department

16 Libertatii Bvd. Bucharest 5, 050706, Romania

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 target population is set of all transactions of dwellings new to households sector and also, other owner-occupiers’ housing expenditure are covered (e.g. costs related to the transfer of ownership, costs related to the ownership.

Entire area of the country is covered.

Data available starting with the index of the first quarter of 2010 for the entire system of indices as described above (point 3.2 Classification system).

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.

Regulation (EU) 2016/792 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2016 on harmonised indices of consumer prices and the house price index.

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

There are no national legal acts related to OOH.

In 2008, a cooperation protocol was signed between the NIS, the Union of Public Notaries from Romania and the National Bank of Romania in order to carry out statistical research on real estate prices. This protocol aims to regulate the common base of activities between the 3 institutions, in order to carry out statistical research and build real estate indices by the NIS the Union of Public Notaries from Romania and the National Bank of Romania have access to price indices obtained by data processing, as well as to other statistics developed by NIS by processing data collected based on the signed protocol.

Data is published to the level of detail described above (point 3.2. Classification system).

Not applicable.

OOHPI is not published nationally.

The quarterly OOHPI data are published on the Eurostat Website at the same time as house price statistics (see Eurostat release calendar).

OOHPI quarterly data are disseminated on the Eurostat website.

Quarterly (OOHPI) and annually (weights)

Not applicable.

Not applicable

Not applicable.

Not disseminated.

The data based 2015=100 is provided by the INS-Romania and published on Eurostat on-line database.

OOHPI is based on methodological guidelines provided in "Technical manual on Owner-Occupied Housing and House Price Indices".

Not available.

All data are checked for completeness and consistency with statistical concepts and definitions.

OOHPI are produced in compliance with OOHPI methodological requirements of the Owner-Occupied Technical Manual.

The quality of the OOHPI is reviewed using a framework based on the OOH Technical Manual and the European Statistical System (ESS) definition of quality.

The OOHPI responds, on the one hand, to the needs of all individual users interested in the behavior of the domestic house price market and, on the other, to the needs of the European Central Bank and Commission for a set of indicators monitoring the stability of the house price market.

Not available.

The OOHPI meets the specifications set out in the Regulation.

The accuracy of the OOHPI is assured by following Eurostat's methodological recommendation.

Not available.

Not available.

OOHPI is not disseminated nationally.

The OOHPI is normally transmitted before the deadline.

Not applicable.

Data are comparable over time, first index is the 2010 first quarter index.

OOHPI covers the transactions of dwellings, having a private household as buyer and non-household as seller.

Transaction prices are used for computing the indices.

The structure is described on point 3.2. Classification system.

Any comparisons with other indices shall have these in mind.

Data are checked for internal consistency.

Not applicable.

Not available.

The general public is informed on the revisions through the statistical publications.

See below.

The OOHPI are based on the following data sources:

- Purchase of new dwellings: Index figures are compiled on the basis of transaction prices and characteristics on dwellings collected through the Public Notaries Offices, all the transactions of dwellings are registered and authorized by public notaries;

- Self-build dwellings and major renovations: Statistical domains ( construction statistics);

- Other services related to the acquisition of dwellings: Index figures are compiled on the basis of transaction prices and characteristics on dwellings collected through the Public Notaries Offices, all the transactions of dwellings are registered and authorized by public notaries; 

- Insurance connected with dwellings: statistical domain (CPI data).

- Major repaires and maintenance: Statistical domains (construction statistics)

Statistical domains (construction statistics, CPI) and other sources are used for the compilation of the weights.

Data are collected monthly.

Data are collected through an electronic format. The electronic data are transmitted by e-mail, the files resulted through the developed application are transmitted to a dedicated address.

Electronic data are transmitted based on a Protocol established between three institutions: National Bank of Romania, National Union of the Notaries Public from Romania, National Institute of Statistics.

Data are checked for internal consistency. Data are validated considering several variables, correlations between variables meant to identify possible errors which disturb the quality of the statistical results.

The collected data were cleaned taking into account the results on the analyze of the market value of transaction price range, the quality of input data on total useful area on the flats, the information on the useful area according to the legislation, the expert guidance on the appraisals indicative values of real estate.

See below.

See below.

The Romanian OOHPI is calculated on a quarterly basis as a chained Laspeyres-type index, with annual weights.

Weighted aggregation of the OOH component indices.

The weights reference period is year t-1, and these weights are price updated to the last quarter of year t-1.

The weights reference period is year t-1, and these weights are price updated to the last quarter of year t-1.

Indexes are chained annually with the fourth quarter of the previous year as the link period.

See below.

Transfer of ownership.

VAT is not included in the price of newly built dwellings.

Other taxes are not included in the price of dwellings.

Not applicable.

Land values are included in prices.

Housing cooperatives are not included.

The possible 'non-market' transactions are excluded from the calculation of the index.

The transactions including more than one dwelling, if there is no possibility to split the value for each dwelling, are excluded. The exchange of dwellings transactions are excluded as well.

The fractional transactions are excluded.

See below.

Computation method:
- lowest level indices: hedonic method (rolling time dummy window method) - O.1.1.1.1. Purchases of newly built dwellings and O.1.1.3. and Other services related to the acquisition of dwellings;

- Indices for: O.1.1.1.2. Self-build dwellings and major renovations; O.1.2.1. Major repairs and maintenance; O.1.2.2. Insurance connected with dwellings are obtained from other statistical  surveys (construction statistics, CPI);

- upper level indices: Laspeyres price index.

Not applicable.

The hedonic method (rolling time dummy window method) is used to adjust for the quality-mix of properties transacted in different periods.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

No.

Not applicable.

None.