Ministerio de Transportes, Movilidad y Agenda Urbana

Directorate-General for Economic Planning and Budgets

Subdirectorate-General for Economic Studies and Statistics

Paseo de la Castellana, 67 - 28071 Madrid (SPAIN)

The information is obtained from the permits granted by municipal authorities for major building projects. For the purposes of these statistics, major projects are defined as those constructions, installations and works for which, as well as the cited municipal permit, a complete plan signed by a competent expert and endorsed by the corresponding professional guild is required.

Initially, major projects — of any type — for which municipal authorities do not need (or do not require) a plan drawn up by an expert to be included with the application for a permit would be omitted from the statistics. However, experience has shown that numerous permits for major projects were  granted without the corresponding plan being required. This means that it would be prudent to include activities of this type in the statistics with the sole aim of not losing quantitatively significant information.

Definitions:

“Building” here means all constructions that are permanent, fixed on the terrain, separate and independent, designed for residential use and/or for the performance of an activity. A “separate construction” is one with lateral delimitation by external or common walls and upper delimitation by a roof. “Independent” means that the building must only have one main point of direct access from the public thoroughfare or private land: despite forming a compact and homogeneous block and, naturally, being covered by the same building permit, a terrace of houses does not count as a single building in accordance with the methodology used for these statistics but constitutes as many buildings as there are main and independent entrances or doorways. Note that this does not rule out the existence of other secondary access points. As an exception, constructions (typically summer houses or second homes) with two or three floors and one or more dwellings on each floor, each with independent access (by external staircase on the higher floors), will be deemed to constitute as many buildings as there are independent main points of access to the dwellings on the ground floor.

“Premises” are that part of a structurally separate building where economic activities are or can be performed independently of the rest of the building.

A “dwelling” is defined as an enclosed space with several living areas and annexes, which may occupy a whole building (single family house) or a part of the same, in which case the dwelling is structurally separated from and independent of the others. It is designed to be inhabited by persons, generally families with one or more members, and enjoys direct access from the public thoroughfare or private common enclosures.

The typology used for buildings in the preparation of these variables follows the CC classification system.

Construction, restoration and demolition of buildings.

The information contained in the statistics on permits is divided into four blocks plus one administrative control section:

 A: GENERAL INFORMATION

 The reference information includes:

1. Details of the developer: Name, company name and full postal address.

2. Type of developer, making distinctions between:

– Trading company: Private / Public

– Cooperatives

– Owners' Associations

– Natural persons: Private individual for own use / Private developer

– State Government

– Autonomous Community Government

– Provincial Authority

– Municipal Authority

– Others

3. Location of the works

Postal address and classification of the terrain

4. Legal rules applicable to the works

State here whether the works are covered by any type of official protection.

5. Duration of the worksAnticipated length of time between the granting of the permit and the start of the work and the anticipated duration of the work.

6. Number and final purpose of the buildings being constructed or that are concerned by the work

The constructions covered by the work are to be classified according to their purpose (a total of 17 possible purposes, both residential and non-residential uses). Where necessary, it must be indicated whether the works concern only commercial premises.

7. Classification by type of work and budget

In this section, indicate one of the five types of work planned for buildings (new build following complete demolition, new build without demolition, restoration with partial demolition, restoration without demolition and complete demolition exclusively) together with the budget for the material performance of the work.

B: NEW BUILD

1. Surface area affected and characteristics of the buildings being constructed

This includes, firstly, the surface area to be occupied by the construction on the terrain and the surface area of the terrain, plot or parcel of land on which the construction is located; and secondly, a series of basic elements of information on the building/s being constructed, such as the number of floors, total surface area and volume, number of dwellings, collective residence spaces and garage spaces.

2. Construction typology

This includes several characteristics defining the typology of the construction, such as:

– The vertical structure, making distinctions for: concrete, metal, load-bearing walls, mixed and others.

– The horizontal structure, making distinctions for: unidirectional, bi-directional and others.

– The roof, which may be: flat or pitched.

– The building envelope, which may be: ceramic, stone, light façades, continuous siding and others.

– The external fittings, which may be: wood, aluminium, sheet steel, plastic and others.

3. Facilities of the buildings to be constructed

Information about the presence of the following equipment and infrastructure is gathered:

– Wastewater drainage

– Potable water

– Hot water

– Heating

– Cooling

– Lifts and goods lifts

– Wastewater treatment

– Handling of other waste

4. Energy installations

The reference types of energy are:

– Electricity

– Solid fuel

– Town gas or natural gas

– Other liquid fuels (LPG)

– Liquid fuels

– Solar energy

– Other type of energy

5. Characteristics of the dwellings

The characteristics taken into account for dwellings are:

– The effective floor area. This refers to dwellings exclusively and corresponds to the square metres of “effective” floor space that are intended for dwelling purposes and delimited by the interior facing of the building envelope or of the walls separating the dwelling in question from other dwellings or premises in the same building, i.e. discounting the common areas of the buildings, depths of partitions, hollow spaces, etc.

– Number of rooms per dwelling: includes kitchens, excludes washrooms and toilets.

– No of washrooms and toilets per dwelling

– No of equal dwellings of each type

C: RENOVATION WORKS (extensions, refurbishment and/or restoration)

1. Typology of the restoration work

– Extension: Horizontal or vertical.

– Refurbishment and/or restoration: Gutting of the building preserving the façade, or without gutting of the building.

– Refurbishment of premises or work to bring them up to standard.

2. Characteristics of the renovation work, depending on the type.

This can be divided into two mutually independent parts, with each one to be implemented in accordance with the type of renovation work that is to take place.

For extension or major renovation work (reconstruction of a building after gutting it, leaving only the façade intact) the information requested concerns the surface area being extended or rebuilt and the number of dwellings being created or destroyed.

For normal renovation work or refurbishment of premises the information requested concerns the number of buildings affected, the dwellings being created or destroyed and the type of refurbishment work to be carried out.

3. Characteristics of the dwellingsWhen renovation work results in the creation of dwellings the information to be gathered is the same as in the case of new builds.

D: DEMOLITION

The following information is to be gathered:

– The floor area, in the event of partial demolition. This is that portion of the total floor area of the building that actually disappears as a consequence of the demolition. This may or may not be the same as the reduction to the surface area of the terrain occupied by the building being renovated, depending on whether the building has one floor or more than one floor. Removal of internal partitions for possible refurbishment of a building, whether or not there is a change of use or purpose, does not affect the total floor area of the same and is thus not considered partial demolition. However, the number of dwellings may vary depending on the original and final purpose of the building.

– Number of buildings, surface area and number of dwellings in the case of complete demolition.

E: ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL

This information must be completed by the corresponding municipal authority since it is the body that gives definitive authorisation for the work to be carried out.

The municipal authorities encode the town, district and section elements as they see fit and can then assign these codes to districts, neighbourhoods, blocks, etc.

The date of issue of the permit will correspond to one of the three instances where information on the construction is present: Authorisation, Start date and Finishing date.

The Council Regulation on short-term statistics (Regulation (EC) No 1165/98) provides that the basic statistical unit (or reporting unit) is the kind-of-activity unit. This is defined as the one carrying out a single activity, at the four-digit level in NACE 2009. Consequently, in order to carry out this study the economic activity had to be defined in accordance with the National Classification of Economic Activities (CNAE-2009).

In accordance with this classification the statistical units of these statistics correspond to the construction of buildings in sections 41 and 431 of that classification:

41 Construction of buildings: residential.

431 Demolition and site preparation: demolition, site preparation, test drilling and boring.

All of the municipalities in Spain.

The national territory.

The current series begins in the year 2000 but there is another series for 1990-99.

None.

Number of dwellings

Useful floor area, m2.

The data are temporary and correspond to the point in time at which the works permit is granted, regardless of when it is requested. Consequently, the data refer to that point in time and are gathered every month.

- Law 12/1989 on the Public Statistical Function.

- General State Budget Act for 1990, fourth additional provision.

- Ministerial Order of 29 May 1989 on building and housing statistics.

Eurostat and United Nations.

Law 12/1989 on the Public Statistical Function prohibits the dissemination or making available in any other manner of individual or aggregated data that could lead to the identification of previously unknown information concerning a person or body.

The Ministry of Public Works takes all the logical, physical and administrative measures necessary to ensure effective protection of confidential data from collection to publication.

Release of the data corresponding to the reference month t is staggered so that the data appear on the Ministry of Public Works website at t + 150 days, in accordance with a predetermined release calendar.

The release calendar is published on the Ministry of Public Works website. http://www.fomento.gob.es/MFOM/LANG_CASTELLANO/ATENCION_CIUDADANO/INFORMACION_ESTADISTICA/Calendario.htm

Data are released simultaneously to all interested parties in accordance with the release calendar. At the same time, the data are published on the Ministry of Public Works website (http://www.fomento.es). Tailor-made orders are also sent to registered users. Some users can receive embargoed information as specified in the European Statistics Code of Practice.

Monthly.

There are no news releases for this indicator.

All information relating to the statistics on permits is published on the Ministry of Public Works website. The following publications can be found there:

- Methodological notes

- Monthly series

- Annual publications

- Availability calendar

All of these publications can be consulted at the following address:

https://www.mitma.es/informacion-para-el-ciudadano/informacion-estadistica/construccion/construccion-de-edificios/construccion-de-edificios-licencias-municipales-de-obra

Historical data and other studies is the system used by the Ministry of Public Works to store all of its statistical information and disseminate it online. It contains all of the information produced by the Ministry of Public Works in electronic format. It is basically organised using a thematic classification. The basic unit is the statistical operation, defined as the set of activities leading to the obtaining of statistical results for a given sector or theme from individually-collected data, and can be consulted at the following address:

http://www.fomento.es/MFOM/LANG_CASTELLANO/ATENCION_CIUDADANO/INFORMACION_ESTADISTICA/DatosHistoricos/

Users can order specially tailored micro-data files for scientific research purposes. Once the viability of the orders has been examined, users may be granted access to the information under strict conditions of confidentiality.

Micro-data are not accessible to the public.

There is the possibility of ordering tailored information via the functional mailbox. When such orders are processed, restrictions relating to confidentiality or precision are taken into account.

Figures relating to the number of dwellings in buildings intended for housing and on the effective floor area of buildings of all types – new builds in both cases – are forwarded to Eurostat once a month.

Information regarding the methodology used for these statistics can be consulted at the following address:

http://www.fomento.gob.es/MFOM/LANG_CASTELLANO/ATENCION_CIUDADANO/INFORMACION_ESTADISTICA/Construccion/ConstruccionEdificios/ConstruccionEdificios_Metodologia.htm

Until May 2012, based on Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/98 on short-term statistics, amended by Regulation (EC) No 1158/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2005, the European Commission (Eurostat) assessed the quality of the data transmitted and reported on the quality of European statistics to the European Parliament and the Council every three years. To that end, each country provided the information requested by the Commission. Eurostat would provide information on the main quantitative indicators, calculated on the basis of the data provided by the Member States.

The quality assurance framework for the statistics produced by the Subdirectorate-General for Economic Studies and Statistics of the Ministry of Public Works is based on ESCoP, the European Statistics Code of Practice produced by Eurostat. ESCoP sets out 15 principles, grouped into three areas: Institutional Environment, Processes and Products. Each principle is associated with a series of indicators enabling it to be measured. For quality assessment, various tools provided by EUROSTAT are used: the indicators referred to above, self-assessment (DESAP), peer review, quality audits and user satisfaction surveys.

The production process for these statistics was designed to guarantee the quality of the information used and of the results obtained from it.

To this end, different quality controls have been devised for all the stages of the process:

- Detection of invalid values.

- Estimates in the absence of responses.- Other permanent monitoring of information flows.

The framework Regulation (EC) No 1165/1998 stipulates that the quality of the data produced by each Member State and sent to Eurostat must be constantly assessed.

The statistics respond to the information needs of the main users of which the following are of particular note:

• Ministries and other public bodies

• Autonomous Communities

• Businesses

• Researchers and universities.

Not known.

The survey meets all information requirements laid down in both national and international standards.

The statistics are governed by Regulation (EC) No 1165/1998 of 19 May 1998 on short-term statistics and successive Regulations amending and complementing that Regulation. This survey satisfies the requirements laid down in all of the above.

Definitively speaking, the survey provides all of the information required under the regulations: the “level of mandatory results available” is therefore 100%.

The procedure for drawing up the statistics has been designed in such a way as to maximise the reliability and accuracy of the data calculated.

Validity checks and analyses of the information take place at all stages of the process of obtaining the data. Errors and missing responses are addressed, resulting in high levels of statistical reliability.

As no sampling is involved, this does not apply.

Not applicable.

The results are published within 5 months following the reference month. Advance data are made available to Eurostat within the three subsequent months. The monthly data sent are modified the following month considering them as definitive.

The results of the statistics are published in accordance with the Ministry of Public Works release calendar for statistics, which can be consulted at the following address: http://www.fomento.gob.es/MFOM/LANG_CASTELLANO/ATENCION_CIUDADANO/INFORMACION_ESTADISTICA/Calendario.htm

Each publication was issued on the date announced in the release calendar.

The statistics are designed to be homogeneous across the geographical area taken into account in terms of methodology, design, method of collection of information, analysis and verification and screening of data.

The current series correspond to the periods 1990-1999 and from 2000 onwards. However, data for variables 411 and 412 are homogeneous and have remained constant since publication began.

An examination of trends in the annual data reveals that coherence with data from other statistics in the sector, such those concerning the start of works provided by the associations of Master Builders and Architectural Engineers.

The data used in the calculation of these statistics are obtained using a dedicated survey and undergo the same processes of analysis, validation and attribution, rendering them completely coherent.

In 2012, the sum allocated to this survey in the budget was €461 430 and it is estimated that the workload is the equivalent of approximately 21 600 person-hours.

The final data do not undergo revisions and therefore there are no major revisions.

Data can be downloaded from the website in Excel format.

Nationally published data and the data sent to EUROSTAT have the same revision policy.

At special occasions, users are informed of any revisions on the website.

Benchmarking: the data are compared with other indicators of the construction sector.

The statistical framework is all of the municipalities in Spain

Data are collected on a monthly basis.

In order to gather the information to be provided by construction undertakings for the preparation of these statistics, a paper questionnaire is used.

During the completion stage, a system to detect inconsistencies is used to alert respondents and ask them to confirm or amend the information provided.

When the information is entered, a checking system alerts users to any inconsistencies that may emerge. During this process, if any data contain discrepancies the staff member responsible for gathering the information contacts the respondent to ask them to confirm or amend the information provided.

Once the information has been compiled, the coverage of the information is checked to guarantee that the data entered are complete and to detect duplications and gaps in coverage, missing responses, etc.

The licensing statistics are drawn up using Ministry of Public Works computer programmes.

Once all of the data have been gathered they are checked for errors, omissions and inconsistencies. In the event of uncertainties an attempt is made to check the data provided and fill in the missing data with the help of the person who supplied the information (expert or developer) or, as appropriate, via the competent municipal authority.

In order to deal with missing responses — as well as contacting each territorial centre and the municipal authorities of the Autonomous Community in question directly to obtain the response, and in cases when no response can be obtained — an extrapolation coefficient is applied in order to estimate the part corresponding to the municipalities that have not sent their information. This portion of the data is not dealt with individually in the results for municipalities but is expressed separately and grouped into two population blocks, one corresponding to municipalities with fewer than 10 000 inhabitants and another corresponding to the rest.

Not aplicable.

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