Croatian Bureau of Statistics

Price Statistics and European Comparison Programme Department

Ilica 3, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia

The House Price Index (HPI) is quarterly indicator that measures the changes in the dwellings transaction prices that households acquire on the market.

The data on HPI are provided in the form of an overall index number comprising two sub-indices: Purchases of newly built dwellings and Purchases of existing dwellings. The national HPI is provided with additional stratification: the City of Zagreb, the Adriatic coast and Other.

The HPI is classified according to the following categories:

  H.1. Purchases of dwellings

         H.1.1. Purchases of newly built dwellings.

         H.1.2. Purchases of existing dwellings.

Household sector.

The HPI covers all transactions of dwellings made by households independently of their previous owners and independently of their final use. Transaction prices include a value of land.

The basic statistical unit of the HPI is private household.

The target population is the set of all transactions of dwellings purchased by households.

The HPI covers the entire area of the country.

Data are available since the first quarter of 2008.

The index reference period is 2015=100.

The following units of measure are available:

    Index: equal 100 in the base period;

    Annual and quarterly rates of change – in percentage;

    Weights are given as parts in 1000.

The compiled quarterly indices represent the whole calendar quarter.

National legislation: 

Official Statistics Act (Official Gazette, No. 25/20),  Annual Implementation Plan of Statistical Activities of the Republic of Croatia (only in Croatian).

European legislation: 

All relevant regulations as well as repealed legislation and other legal documents can be found in the Housing Price Statistics section on Eurostat's website under => Legislation.

None.

National legislation:

Under the Official Statistics Act (Official Gazette, No. 25/20), the Croatian Bureau of Statistics (CBS) cannot publish, or otherwise make available to any individual or organization, statistics that would enable the identification of data for any individual person or legal entity. Individual data are strictly confidential and must not be published or reported.

European legislation:

Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

According to the policy rules (see point 7.1).

A release schedule for the upcoming year, specifying dates of release is published each December in the CBS Publishing Programme. The exact dates of release are pre-announced each year in the Calendar of Statistical Data Issues.

The Croatian HPI is also published by Eurostat quarterly according to Eurostat’s Release calendar.

Calendar of Statistical Data Issues

Since January 2016, HPI data is released simultaneously to all users at the same time (11:00 CET) by publishing the press release on the CBS website - First release: House Price Indices.

No special users are granted special or pre-access to data.

Quarterly.

The HPI is published on the CBS website in the form of First release: House Price Indices.

Except from the first release, HPI is included in Statistics in Line section under Prices on the CBS website.

CBS: Statistics in Line - Prices

Eurostat: HPI database

Microdata are not disseminated.

Not available.

Short description of the methodology is published in every issue of the First release: House Price Indices and in Statistics in Line section under Prices on the CBS website.

HPI metadata is available on Eurostat website.

Not available.

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

None.

It’s a general measure of housing price movements in the country. It is of interest to the general public, property appraisers, lawyers, and financial institutions for monetary policy (ECB, Croatian National Bank, etc.).

Not available.

All sub-indices are calculated according to the EU regulation.

The HPI is perceived to be accurate and to reflect well the overall behaviour of the housing market following the Eurostat’s methodological recommendations and the regulation.

The CBS does not produce estimates on sampling errors as obtained administrative data cover the whole universe of dwelling transactions.

Not available.

The national HPI is published approximately 100 days after the end of the related quarter according to Calendar of Statistical Data Issues, which also follows the Eurostat’s release calendar.

Data are sent to Eurostat according to the requirements – no later than 85 days from the end of the quarter to which the indices relate and no later than June 15 of the reference year for weights.

There is no record on delays in the data production so far (see 14.1.).

Not available.

HPI data considered to be comparable over time since 2008.

Not available.

All figures are checked for internal consistency.

Not available.

HPI series are revisable under the terms set in Commission Regulation (EU) No 2023/1470 of 17 July 2023. The published HPI data may be revised for mistakes, new or improved information, and changes in the system of harmonised rules.

Eurostat and public will be informed about possible non-periodic revisions.

See below.

Data source for price of newly built and existing dwelling is Tax Administration database of the Ministry of Finance.

Data source for weights of newly built and existing dwelling is Tax Administration database of the Ministry of Finance.

Not available.

Data are collected quarterly.

Administrative data are received through the use of an electronic protocol established between the CBS and the Tax Administration.

Data are checked for internal consistency in terms of eliminating errors in the database and records with unrealistically high or low values of characteristics which is important to achieve homogeneity.

See below.

See below.

HPI is a Laspeyres-type price index.

The HPI for the whole territory of Croatia is calculated from the six sub-indices for three defined geographic areas of Croatia. These indices are then aggregated to higher levels (index for newly built and existing dwellings) and level total for the whole country.

The weights are calculated on the basis of dwelling transactions values from the previous year.

Weights are price-updated on the basis of the dwellings prices that were bought in the last quarter of the previous year.

The HPI is chained on a yearly basis using the fourth quarter of the previous year as the linking period.

Hedonic methods are applied for calculations of newly built and existing sub-indices.

The index compilation starts with pre-defined hedonic regression models according to variables which are defined on the basis of available dwelling characteristics. Until the end of 2011, standard time-dummy hedonic regression was used in the calculation of indices, while since the first quarter of 2012, they have been calculated by using a rolling window time-dummy hedonic regression (four quarters window) due to availability of extended set of dwelling characteristics data. These indices are then aggregated to the total index for new and existing dwellings and to the total HPI for the whole country.

Not applicable.

Stratification is based on:

-  three defined geographic areas of Croatia and

-  types of purchased dwellings (newly built and existing dwellings).

See below.

Transaction prices are fixed in the buying contract and date of contract must be in the quarter for which the index is calculated.

VAT is included in the price of newly built dwellings.

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

The HPI includes only transactions at market prices. As transactions which include government subsidies are normally below market prices, they are excluded from the HPI.

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

Housing cooperatives are not covered in the HPI.

Not included.

Not included.

Fractional transactions are included in calculation with no special treatment.

The initial outliers detection is set up to eliminate 5% of records with unrealistically high or low values in combination of predetermined limits for each stratum.

After initial validation, the regression models are used to detect any remaining outliers – studentized residual for each dwelling transaction is calculated and if it is higher than specified value, the transaction is identified as an outlier and removed from regression model and final compilation.

Due to the lack of some information in administrative dataset (eg. year of construction of the dwellings) the data is fulfilled from available historical datasets where possible (eg. according to the address of the dwelling).

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

None.