Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia (SURS).

Price Statistics Section.

Litostrojska cesta 54, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.

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 overall index number comprising two sub-­indices: Purchases of newly built dwellings and Purchases of existing dwellings.

The data are based on harmonized definitions and concepts laid down in the European Parliament and Council Regulation (EU) 2016/792 of 11 May 2016 and described in the OOH and HPI Technical Manual. Price indices for flats are calculated by the hedonic »characteristic prices« method and family houses price indices by the hedotnic »re-pricing« method.

There is no specific classification, the breakdown according to Commission Implementing Regulation 2023/1470 of 17 July 2023  (Article 3) applies.

H.1. Purchases of dwellings

H.1.1. Purchases of newly built dwellings

H.1.2. Purchases of existing dwellings

https://stat.gov.lv/en/metadata/2563-owner-occupied-housing-price-index

The HPI covers New and Existing Dwellings sold throughout the country. Transaction prices of new dwellings comprise also an 9.5% VAT. The land price is included in total transaction value.

From all transactions of dwellings, only market transactions for which all-appropriate data on real estate characteristics are available, are taken into account. Thus all transactions that are related to inheritance and other kinds of transfer of ownership between relatives are excluded as well as combined transactions (i.e. several dwellings being sold within one sales contract and the individual prices cannot be determined).

For calculating the price index of flats we only use transactions of flats:

• that are larger than 17 m² but smaller than 250 m²,
• that were constructed less than 200 years ago,
• whose average price per square meter of usable floor area is not lower than EUR 300 but not higher than EUR 6.000.

For calculating the price index of family houses we only use transactions of family houses:

• that are larger than 40 m² but smaller than 300 m²,
• that were constructed less than 200 years ago but more than three years ago,
• whose average price per square meter of usable floor area is not lower than EUR 300 but not higher than EUR 5.000,
• whose associated building plot is not larger than 4.000 m².

As regard physical characteristics, for newly built flats and family houses the same criteria as for existing flats and family houses are applied. A building is treated as new if it is not sold more than three years after completion or  is less than 10 years of age and VAT was paid at sales. For transaction of new dwellings - a VAT (9.5%) is paid, while for existing dwelling transaction a transaction tax (2,0%) is paid.

The HPI is a chain-linked Laspeyres-type price index. HPI data are presented in the form of index numbers (current reference year: 2015) and quarterly growth rates. Every quarter also the number and value of transactions is published. The HPI is weighted by the value of dwelling transactions.

The basic statistical unit of the HPI is a private household.

The target population is transactions of new/existing dwellings throughout the country.  

Quarterly data for all types of residential real estate are published at the level of Slovenia. For existing flats the following level is also available:

• Rest of Slovenia.
• Ljubljana - municipality.
• Maribor - municipality.
• Rest of Slovenia (without the municipality of Ljubljana).
• Rest of Slovenia (without the municipality of Ljubljana and Maribor).

Data are available since the first quarter of 2007.

The index reference period is 2015=100.

Index figures with reference year 2015 are available, as well as quarterly and annual growth rates in percentage. Weights are given as parts in 1000.

Quarter.

National legislation: National Statistics Act (OJ RS, No. 45/95 and 9/2001), Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys (LPSR) (only in Slovene).

European legislation: The basic act providing for the compilation of the House price index (HPI) and the Owner-occupied price index (OOHPI) is the European Parliament and Council Regulation (EU) 2016/792 of 11 May 2016. There is also an implementing act laying down methodological and technical specifications: Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1470 of 17 July 2023.

Not applicable.

National legislation: National Statistics Act (OJ RS, No. 45/95 and 9/2001). SURS 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 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of 11 March 2009, on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

According to the policy rules (see point 7.1).

In November of each year, the SURS publishes the Release calendar giving the exact dates of releases for the coming year. The HPI is published 85 days after the end of the reference period.

The release calendar is publicly available and published on the SURS.

The HPI data is released simultaneously to all users at the same time (10:30 CET) by the issuance of the First release: Residential housing price indices published on the SURS website and in SiStat database. HPI could be obtained also via phone, fax and e-mail.

Quarterly.

First data are published in accordance with the release calendar as First Release at 10:30 on the day of release - House price indices.

Not available.

Data is uploaded to the SiStat database.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

A description of the methodology and sources used to compile the HPI are published on SURS website http://www.stat.si/statweb/en/mainnavigation/methods-and-classifications/methodological-explanations 

theme: Prices and Inflation, sub-theme: Real Estate Prices

Quality reports are available on SURSs website.

theme: Prices and Inflation, sub-theme: Real Estate Prices

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

The HPI quality assessment is available in the Quality Report.

theme: Prices and Inflation, sub-theme: Real Estate Prices

It’s a general measure of housing price movements in the country. It is of interest to the general public, data are asked also by property appraisers, lawyers, as well as by financial institutions for monetary policy (ECB, National Bank, etc.).

SURS measured general user satisfaction for the last time in 2021. Respondents assessed general satisfaction with the SURS products and services with the average score of 8.3 (on a scale from 1 – disagree completely to 10 – agree completely), there is no specific information for HPI.

All statistics that are required by EU Regulation 2016/792 are calculated.

The HPI is perceived to be accurate and to reflect the overall behavior of the housing market in a good manner.

Not available.

Not available.

The time lag between the end of the period to which the HPI and House Sales indicators relate and their national publication is 85 days.

The time lag between the actual delivery of the data and the target date when it should have been delivered is 0 days.

Data are comparable across NUTS 3 regions where appropriate indices exist.

HPI data considered to be comparable over time since 2007.

The regular yearly and half-yearly Report on the Slovenian property market published by the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia (GURS) may partly overlap the scope of the HPI. The report also analyzes the number and value of sales of residential real estate, as well as the average price per square meter of usable area of ​​flats and the average sales value of family houses. The report is based on data from the Real Estate Market Record (ETN), which are also source of the HPI. The sources differ significantly in the method of calculation and the different definitions of the statistical population.

All figures are checked for internal consistency.

Since data are obtained from existing administrative and statistical sources, this does not create additional burden (and thus costs) for the reporting units.

The published HPI data may be revised due to subsequent discovery of other major discrepancies (inconsistencies) in the data and changes in the system of harmonised rules. Revisions must be pre-announced and is carried out in accordance with the document on the revision of statistical data (only in Slovene).

In June 2023 the indices for the 2022 have been revised. The reason for revision was due to subsequently obtained data on a larger number of sales of new residential real estate for 2022 by the GURS (The Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia) which are the basis of sub-index H.1.1. Purchases of newly built dwellings. For the same reason, revised data for 2021 were published in 2022 and revised data for 2017-2019 were published in September 2020.

See below.

Data on transactions of residential real estate from which the HPI is calculated, are taken over from the administrative source the Real Estate Market Record (ETN), which is run by the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia (GURS).

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 as used for prices.

The data source for property transactions is the Real Estate Market Record (ETN) maintained by the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia (GURS). This survey encompasses all real estate transactions in Slovenia, and GURS transmits the agreed-upon real estate transaction data to SURS within 65 days after the end of each quarter.

Quarterly.

Data is retrieved from the SOVD (Large File Clipboard) system. The new agreement with GURS on data transmission was concluded the 2nd of December, 2020. Data security is taken care of, where the ZIP file is protected by a password set by the SOVD system (currently 8 digits). The password is communicated by the SOVD system in a separate e-mail to the same e-mail address to which the compressed ZIP file is sent.

Data are checked for internal consistency twice: first at the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia (GURS) and secondly at SURS.

See below.

See below.

HPI is a Laspeyres-type price index.

Sub-indices are aggregated to the total index for new and existing dwellings and to the total HPI for the whole country using a Laspeyres-type formula.

The weights are representative for the year t-1 and are based on data on household expenditures on the purchase of residential real estate. They are adjusted to reflect the prices of the reference price period (the last quarter of the previous year). They are updated every year.

For calculating the aggregated price index of several types of dwellings, the annual value of transactions (T-1) of individual types of dwelling is used for weighting, adjusted with an appropriate price change between the year t-1 and the fourth quarter of the year T-1.

Each year indices are calculated using fourth quarter of the previous year=100 as base reference period and are rebased to 2015=100 using the chain linked method.

Price indices for flats (new and existing) are calculated by the hedonic »characteristics prices« approach, while for family houses price index calculation the hedonic »re-pricing» method is used. 

For calculating the price index of existing flats and existing family houses the hedonic regression analyses based on characteristics price index formula are performed. Individual regression model has been developed for every dwelling type. Regression models are being reviewed when changes of input transactions data occur or when new  methodological knowledge occurs.

Dwellings price indices are compiled using a hedonic regression in which the logarithm of sales price is used as dependent variable. Explanatory variables consist of physical (e.g. usable and net area, age of the property, garage size) and location characteristic (the so-called value zone - VC) of transactions. Parameters are estimated using weighted least squares.

The next step is the final calculation of the price index according to the selected method, i.e. characteristics price index, which is based on the use of calculated regression coefficients in the formula for the Laspeyres index. The basis for weighting in the formula is average values of real estate characteristics in the fourth quarter of the previous year.

For calculating the price index of newly built family houses re-pricing index is used. This is a Jevons-type formula which is part of the hedonic methods of calculating price indices. For calculating average property prices, the geometric mean of raw input prices of real estate is used. The re-pricing index formula has a characteristic that for balancing the differences in the quality of houses between comparable periods reference data on house characteristics from a much longer period of observation can be used. The reference period for calculating the price index of newly built houses is 2008 (four quarters).

Not applicable.

Geographical stratification is used exclusively for existing flats price index calculation: separate indices for Ljubljana Municipality, Maribor Municipality, Rest of the country without the municipality of Ljubljana and the Rest of the country without the municipality of Ljubljana and Maribor are compiled.

See below.

The price of the dwelling is the price in the sale contract. Payed transfer tax is a pre-condition for ownership registration in the Land Register. Contract parties are therefore interested to perform a quick execution of the sale contract.

VAT is included in the price of new dwellings.

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

The HPI includes only transactions at market prices. Government subsidies are normally devoted for rents not for dwelling acquisition.

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

Housing cooperatives are not covered in the HPI.

Non-market transactions such as transactions of the state and the municipalities transactions, inheritances and donations, etc. we exclude based on the indicator that identifies these transactions in the data source.

In the data source, in principle, each transaction reflects an individual properties (house or flat). Several properties are rarely sold in a package and in most cases we exclude them from the index calculation because they do not reflect the real market price.

Fractional transactions we treat them as other transactions (where the property is sold as a whole). If the data is incomplete or the properties of the property significantly deviate from the average, they are excluded from the calculation of the indicators.

The outliers are determined using regression analysis. For each type of real estate, a regression model is defined that contains representative characteristics of that type of real estate. Properties that deviate from these characteristics are designated as outliers.

The calculation of indicators is based on an administrative source. The collection of data on completed sales transactions takes place systemically.

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

None.