INSEE - The French National Institut for Statistics.

The Housing and Wealth Division belongs to Department of Household Resources and Living Conditions.

Department of Household Resources and Living Conditions belongs to Directorate of Economic and Social Statistics, one of the central directorates of INSEE

88 Avenue Verdier CS 70058 92541 MONTROUGE CEDEX  FRANCE

HPIs give comparable measures for changes in the prices of dwellings. They are calculated according to a harmonised approach and a single set of definitions.

Index numbers and weights sent to Eurostat are available at the level of detail established by the harmonised indexes of consumer prices and housing price index Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023

Level of detail for the classification in the national HPI series: each quarter, data concern all dwellings, new and used ones (apartments and houses).

All dwellings, except for newly built dwellings from building programs of 1 to 4 units which are not covered. These account for less than 5 % of the total number of dwellings transactions in 2015.

HPI data for the purchases of newly built and existing dwellings are compiled on the basis of full transaction prices. The HPI covers all transactions of dwellings made by households regardless of their final use. The weights for the two sub-indices are equal to the total value of dwelling transactions for newly built and existing dwellings, respectively. Both prices and weights include land value, as recommended by the Technical manual on Owner-Occupied Housing and House Price Indices (2017).

Dwelling transaction

Dwelling transactions in a member state

French HPI covers Metropolitan France, excluding overseas areas.

Regional breakdown in national HPI: Only available for existing dwellings.

Data are available from: 1992Q1 for used dwellings in Île de France, 1994Q4 for existing dwellings in the other French regions and from 2000Q1 for newly built dwellings.

Index figures base period is the average of 2015 (=100)

Index numbers (current reference year: 2015)

Quarterly

Legal acts and other agreements - EU level :

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1470

EU Regulation 2016/792 provides for the quarterly transmission of HPI data by 85 days after the end of the quarter and of the annual weights by 15 June of year following the year to which the weights relate.

Legal acts and other agreements - national level :

Real estate transactions are carried out before a notaries, a State-appointed public officer. Concerning used dwellings, the data are supplied by notaries. For new dwellings, price indexes are computed by Insee from real estate transactions as they are collected by a large quarterly survey conducted by the statistical service of the French Ministry of Territorial Cohesion.

Access to administrative data:

No legal requirements.

Not applicable.

Data are published up to the level of detail described in the HPI Regulation.

Not applicable.

The French HPI is published according to Eurostat's schedule.

Time horizon of the schedule: See point 8.2 below. The schedule is available on Eurostat’s website.

Release calendar

Scope of dissemination: Data are published without any restriction to all public.

Users are informed about data release by a press release (see point 8.2).

Data dissemination is made for everyone at the same hour, the same day.

Quarterly for the indexes and annual for the weights.

Quarterly publication in 'Information rapide'.

Indices of existing dwellings prices are also published on their own (https://www.insee.fr/en/statistiques?debut=0&theme=30&conjoncture=56)

Macro-economic database (BDM) where you can view, download and manage all series covering the main economic and social domains for France. All these series are updated in real time.

https://www.insee.fr/en/statistiques?debut=0&theme=30&conjoncture=55

https://www.insee.fr/en/statistiques/3532427?sommaire=3530679

Delivered on request by notaries.

No change expected in near future.

Summary documents providing HPI methodology is available at: https://www.insee.fr/fr/metadonnees/source/fichier/Logement-neufs_m_septembre2018.pdf (only in French).

Methodology of existing dwelling indexes provided at: https://www.bnsp.insee.fr/ark:/12148/bc6p06zhmnr.r=Insee%20prix%20des%20logements%20anciens?rk=257512;0 (only in French).

Methodology of newly built dwelling indexes provided at: https://www.bnsp.insee.fr/ark:/12148/bc6p06zrgps (only in French).

Not yet available.

All data are checked for completeness and consistency according to the statistical concepts and definitions. The quality of the HPI 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 quality of the HPI index is routinely reviewed using a framework that is based on the Technical manual on Owner-Occupied Housing and House Price Indices and the European Statistical System (ESS) definition of quality. No certification has been yet defined in order to ensure the quality of indexes.

Professionals and journalists.

No user enquiry has been done yet.

All relevant expenditure categories defined in the HPI and OOHPI implementing Regulation.

The HPI is seen to be accurate and it reflects well the overall behaviour of the housing market.

No sampling: the databases are conceptually exhaustive. Exception, see 13.3.

Coverage rates, scale of revisions, numbers of deeds taken into account, time taken to incorporate deeds into the databases are monitored for existing dwellings indexes, see https://www.bnsp.insee.fr/ark:/12148/bc6p06zhmnr.r=Insee%20prix%20des%20logements%20anciens?rk=257512;0

Data are sent according to HPI regulation: 85 days after the end of the reference period (indexes) and no later than June 15th of the year following the reference year (weights).

Data are sent according to Reg. 2020/1148 : 85 days after the end of the reference period regarding indexes and no later than June 15th of the year following the reference year regarding weights.

Only one overall index is given for France (regional sub-indices are available for the existing dwellings).

Data are comparable since 2000Q1

Coherence of HPI with available external data on the housing market: No study has been made on this matter.

All figures are checked for internal consistency.

Several units contribute to the compilation of house price statistics, not only statisticians from Insee. It entails in particular a partnership with the French notaries association.

HPI data are revisable.

A quarter is usually revised and deemed as definitive with the publication of results for the next quarter.

See below.

Existing dwelling price indices are compiled using an administrative data source (notaries’ databases). For new dwellings, index numbers are computed using a survey. 

Weights are based on fiscal data, the notaries bases and surveys run by the Ministry of Territorial Cohesion.

See above.

Notaries data for existing dwellings are collected continuously. Data for new dwellings are collected quarterly.

Collection details: see previous concepts.

For newly built dwellings, validation of the data collection by the collector (the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion) including checks for aberrant values + excluding outliers from the model. For existing dwellings, data editing is performed by the collector (notaries) and missing values can be imputed for some variables.

See below.

See below.

HPI is a Laspeyres-type price index.

The two indices (new and existing dwelling indices) are aggregated by means of weights derived from the global amount of transactions (in values) each of them represents.

The HPI weights of year Y are based on dwelling transaction values Y-1 (new and existing sector) (gross concept applied, weights data include the value of land).
The weights for each category of dwellings (newly built and existing) are defined by their respective shares in the acquisition by households during the year Y-1.
Frequency of updating the weights: Yearly.

Weights are price updated every year to the fourth quarter of the previous year, as requested in the usual methodology.

Every sub-index (existing and new dwelling indices) are chained on a yearly basis using the fourth quarter of the previous year.

Hedonic models for both indices.

The model for newly built dwellings has not been revised since its development.

The model for existing dwellings is revised every five years.

Hedonic models and their exact specification depend on the type of dwellings and their observable characteristics. A description of these models may be found:

- for existing dwellings, in https://www.insee.fr/en/metadonnees/source/indicateur/p1643/documentation-methodologique

- for newly built dwellings, in http://www.jms-insee.fr/2015/S06_2_ACTE_BALCONE_JMS2015.PDF

Hedonic methods are used for estimating price indices, both for existing and new dwellings.

Geographical stratification is performed over the national territory, so as to end up with more than 300 strata broken down between houses and apartments.

See below.

For existing dwellings, it is at the transfer of ownership (signature of the sale in front of a notary). For new dwellings, it is at the first binding contract (reservation of a dwelling including a deposit).

Transaction are registered in the databases when the deeds are signed. Indexes are computed with the registered transaction. Nevertheless, notaries started to implement computation on pre-contracts. There are normally about three months between the signing of the pre-contract and the signing of the actual sale contract. The introduction of advanced price indices calculated from the pre-contracts will therefore enable us to produce indices that are more reactive to the state of the market.

VAT is included in the price of new dwellings.

Taxes other than VAT are not included in the price of dwellings.

Government subsidies are not taken into account. They are negligible in terms of weights.

The price of land is included in both prices and weights.

Housing cooperatives are not covered in the HPI.

Excluded.

Multi-object transactions are excluded from the computation when the price cannot be divided between the different objects through data editing.

Fractional transactions are also excluded.

A procedure of outliers is set in place and gives place to data editing when considered necessary for both sources.

Before Q2 2021, a procedure of reweighting was performed on existing dwellings data. It is not necessary anymore.

No adjustments other than quality adjustment are applied to the HPI data.

None.