National Institute of Statistics (INS), Romania

Price Statistics Department

16 Libertatii Bvd. Bucharest 5, 050706. Romania

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

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

The data on the HPI is provided in the form of an index number comprising two sub­-indices: Purchases of  newly built dwellings and Purchases of existing dwellings.

The index numbers are conform to the classification details required by the Regulation.

Household Sector (ESA 2010 sector S.14).

The HPI covers all transactions of dwellings made by households regardless of its final use. This index thus covers not only the transactions that are new to the household sector but also all that are traded between households.

Index figures for the purchase of the dwellings are compiled on the basis of full transaction prices which are collected through the Public Notaries Offices (actual transaction prices recorded in the contract signed in front of the public notary, prices established between the seller and buyer of the dwelling). All of the transactions of dwellings are registered and authorized by public notaries. All the practicing notaries are included in the National Union of Notaries Public from Romania, a professional organization with legal personality.

Transaction prices include the value of land.

The HPI is a fixed base Laspeyres price index. HPI data are published in the form of index numbers (current reference year: 2015). Data is sent to Eurostat in base 2015=100.

The HPI is weighted by the value of dwelling transactions (flats and houses) sector and by location (flat in Bucharest, flats in rest of the country, house in urban area and house in rural area).

The basic statistical unit of the HPI is private households.

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

Entire area of the country is covered.

House price index (2015=100) – quarterly data are available starting with Q1 2009.

Data is sent to Eurostat in the index reference year 2015=100.

Index with reference year 2015  and growth rates are available. Weights are given in monetary volumes and in parts in 1000.

Quarter.

Legal acts and other agreements - EU level:

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

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.

The release calendar is publicly available and published at the end of the year for the full following year.

The precise date of the release of the quarterly HPI index data is available on INS website and Eurostat's website.

The data are published in the Prices Statistical Bulletin (Synthesis Publications).

The data is disseminated to all users through the NSI website and Eurostat website

HPI are produced quarterly.

Not applicable.

On-line publications (Eurostat website, INS website), paper publications (INS, data are published in the Prices Statistical Bulletin)

Not applicable.

Not disseminated.

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

Description of methodology is published in the Prices Statistical Bulletin.

Not available.

All data are checked for completeness and consistency with HPI 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.

Evaluation of the house price market is not included in the HICP. HICP excludes for the time being the expenditure of households for purchasing dwellings, therefore an official information on the change over time of the prices on dwellings (besides the general use of inflation) shall offer valuable indicators in assessing and valuing real properties which are needed in acquisition and disposals, mortgages, taxation, etc.

Not available.

All relevant expenditure categories defined in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1470 are covered.

The HPI is perceived to be accurate and to reflect the overall behaviour of the housing market.

The questionnaire is sent to all notary offices in the country.

Not available.

The data are published nationally approximately 112 days after the end of the reference quarter.

HPI data are sent to Eurostat, no later than 85 days after the end of the reference quarter, in accordance with regulation according to Reg. 2016/792, T+85

There are no comparability problems.

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

HPI covers the transactions of dwellings, having a private household as buyer involved in the transfer of the property and transaction price used for computing the indices. Any comparisons with other indices shall have this in mind.

Data are checked for internal consistency.

Not available.

Not available.

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

See below.

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.

The questionnaire include information regarding the year of construction for each property transfer.

HPI weights are based on actual dwelling transaction values. The partition of the total HPI weight into new and existing dwellings is done using information available from the same source used for prices.

Romania does not calculate House sales indicators.

Primary data are collected monthly.

Collection details:

Data are collected through a questionnaire also implemented in 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 validation procedures:

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 analysis of the market value of transaction price range, the quality of input data on total useful area of 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 HPI is calculated on a quarterly basis as a chained Laspeyres-type index, with annual weights.

Price change are provided on a quarterly basis for the following sub-sets of the housing market:
- type of dwelling

• new for the household sector;
• existing for the household sector:
  • apartments
    • capital city
    • rest of the country
  • houses
    • urban
    • rural

Computation method:
- lowest level indices: hedonic method (rolling time dummy window method)

- upper level indices: Laspeyres price index

Weight figures are annually updated on the basis of the transaction dataset. 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.

For newly built dwellings and for existing dwellings hedonic method is used.

Given the existing limitations for real estate sales, the qualitative changes that occur over time, the method used to estimate the indices is the “hedonic” method.
The characteristics which have been taken into account for creating the regression function were the following:

a. location where the dwelling is situated

i. capital city or rest of the country for apartments in blocks;
ii. urban or rural area for individual buildings.
For each locality, dummy variables taking value 1 if the dwelling is situated in a certain micro-location (district for flats in the capital city, county in the other cases) or value 0 otherwise have been created;

b. year of construction: 5 dummy variables were considered in relation to the year of construction declared for the transacted dwelling;
c. level at which the dwelling is located: 4 dummy variables were considered depending on the floor on which the dwelling is situated;
d. area of the dwelling: the natural logarithm value for each area was considered;
e. type of apartment: 2 dummy variables were created, one for each type of apartment (detached, not-detached);
f. comfort type: dummy variables were created for each type of comfort (superior, comfort type I, type II, other categories);
g. heating type: dummy variables were created for each heating type used in the sold dwelling (central heating, own central heating, air conditioning, etc.);
h. type of finishes: 3 dummy variables were built for the existing types (superior, normal, without);
i. state of dwelling maintenance: 3 dummy variables were created depending on the statement of the seller/buyer (very good, good, satisfactory);
j. neighborhood: dummy variables were created taking into account the location of the dwelling (near the public transport network, near shops, etc.).

The model applied is a rolling time dummy window, and is run every quarter for the latest quarter and the four previous quarter.

Not applicable.

Given the existing limitations for real estate sales, the qualitative changes that occur over time, the method used to estimate the indices is the “hedonic” method.
The characteristics which have been taken into account for creating the regression function were the following:

a. location where the dwelling is situated

i. capital city or rest of the country for apartments in blocks;
ii. urban or rural area for individual buildings.
For each locality, dummy variables taking value 1 if the dwelling is situated in a certain micro-location (district for flats in the capital city, county in the other cases) or value 0 otherwise have been created;

b. year of construction: 5 dummy variables were considered in relation to the year of construction declared for the transacted dwelling;
c. level at which the dwelling is located: 4 dummy variables were considered depending on the floor on which the dwelling is situated;
d. area of the dwelling: the natural logarithm value for each area was considered;
e. type of apartment: 2 dummy variables were created, one for each type of apartment (detached, not-detached);
f. comfort type: dummy variables were created for each type of comfort (superior, comfort type I, type II, other categories);
g. heating type: dummy variables were created for each heating type used in the sold dwelling (central heating, own central heating, air conditioning, etc.);
h. type of finishes: 3 dummy variables were built for the existing types (superior, normal, without);
i. state of dwelling maintenance: 3 dummy variables were created depending on the statement of the seller/buyer (very good, good, satisfactory);
j. neighborhood: dummy variables were created taking into account the location of the dwelling (near the public transport network, near shops, etc.).

The model applied is a rolling time dummy window, and is run every quarter for the latest quarter and the four previous quarter.

See below.

The price of the dwelling are recorded when the property right are being alienated in a ad validitatem form of sale and purchases contract, authentified by civil law notary.

VAT is included in the price of new dwellings.

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

There are no government subsidies granted in the case of housing market

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

Housing cooperatives are not covered in the HPI.

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.

The main methods used for detecting the outliers are Tukey’s method (boxplot) and interquartile range.

Not applicable.

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

None.