Statistics Belgium

Economic statistics

North Gate, Boulevard du Roi Albert II, 16 1000 Bruxelles

Building permits (bouwvergunningen/permis de bâtir). These figures are designed to be an indicator of the economic cycle.

Statistical Classification of Products by Activity in the European Union

(CONSTRUCTIONS AND CONSTRUCTION WORKS)

Activities covered:   All types of residential and non residential constructions.

https://statbel.fgov.be/sites/default/files/files/metadata/T8.STAT_DTST_37.CTAC_ORG_1.DIFF_LVL_1.NL.pdf

Reporting unit:    The reporting unit is the municipality that issues the building permit.
Observation unit(s):    building permit

All authorised (by the municipality) building permits

All regions of Belgium are covered.

since 1996

Not relevant

• number of buildings
• m² for area
• m³ for volume

Periodicity is monthly.

The legal basis for this indicator is described here: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/short-term-business-statistics/legislation

The legal basis in Belgium is the the Royal Decree of 3 december 1962. Participation in the survey is obligatory.

Data are sent to UN.

There is no real confidentiality problem for building permits as this info is also publicly available elsewhere, though no address and owner data are released.

Not relevant

https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/calendar

https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/calendar

Data are transmitted to Eurostat when they are published in Belgium.

Monthly

There is a specific and monthly press release.

The latest version of this press release is available on https://statbel.fgov.be/nl/themas/bouwen-wonen/bouwvergunningen

The building permits data are published on the Statistics Belgium website.
Every month, within 3 months after the end of the reference month, the Short Term Indicators Unit of Statistics Belgium draws up an update of results on the newly-calculated building permits in Dutch, French.

None

None

Data are transmitted to Eurostat to be used in calculating European aggregates and to be released as national data. 

https://statbel.fgov.be/nl/themas/bouwen-wonen/bouwvergunningen#documents

Not available

For each step of the production chain, the figures of permits that look suspicious for reasons of magnitude are checked individuallyare controlled.

Once the figures produced, they are validated by our internal validation service before publication.

Checks carried out along the production chain of the indices and these are finally validated by our validation service before diffusion

- Eurostat

- confederation of construction

- national bank of Belgium

- regions

- universities

- companies

No measure of user satisfaction but we receive positive feedback of users by mail, phone,...

All of the required data are available

No known problems

Not relevant

About 100% (after a year). After 3 months, more then 80% of the population has answered

Contacts by phone, reminder letters after 3 months, visit of inspection service after 6 months.

The data on building permits are released within 3 months after the reference period.

In theory municipalities have to deliver the forms of the permits issued in a certain month during the following month.

No problem of punctuality

European definitions are equally applied  in the 3 regions of Belgium.

No break in the series

 No regular confrontation is made, but comparisons are made on an ad-hoc basis, especially when results seem contrary to expectations.

No problem

~14500 hours/year for our NIS.

1 person works ~7 days/month in the thematic direction to produce results.

12 persons work ~12 days/month in the collect center

Figures of the last 3 years are recalculated every month.  

Same revision policy is applied nationally + transmissions to Eurostat

Figures of the last 3 years are recalculated every month (to include late declarations).

MAR between 0 and 0.04 for all indicators.

MR between -0.01 and 0.03 for all indicators.

Type of source :   Statistical surveys are conducted by municipalities.
Frame on which the source is based :   authorized building demands
Sample or census :   Census
Criteria for stratification :   Not relevant
Threshold values and percentages :   None.
Frequency of updating the sample :   not relevant

Monthly

Questionnaires used in the survey :   Statistical forms on paper distributed to municipalities
Planned changes in national questionnaires :    none
Data collection media :   Forms on paper
Planned changes in data collection methodology :   None

Checks are carried out at the time of data collection and throughout the production chain. These are also validated by another service before distribution.

Collected data are daily transferred from the operating system in a datawarehouse.

Then, a sas program allows to check the variation of the different variables for a statistical unit and allows to identify problems. If a problem is detected, the collect center is contacted. In function of the response of our collect center, the declaration is maintained, re-estimated or removed for the figures calculation.

Final tables and press releases are validated by our validation service : format, content, missing information, layout of press release are verified.

If results appear abnormal, the validation service recontacts the responsible for verification

Estimates for non-response : Estimation of non response based on historical series and imputation

None

Not available.