Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
[RS1] Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia (SORS)
1.2. Contact organisation unit
Construction Unit
1.3. Contact name
Confidential because of GDPR
1.4. Contact person function
Confidential because of GDPR
1.5. Contact mail address
Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, Milana Rakića 5, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
1.6. Contact email address
Confidential because of GDPR
1.7. Contact phone number
Confidential because of GDPR
1.8. Contact fax number
Confidential because of GDPR
2.1. Metadata last certified
2 June 2026
2.2. Metadata last posted
2 June 2026
2.3. Metadata last update
2 June 2026
3.1. Data description
A building permit is an authorisation to start work on a building project. The objective of the building permits indicator is to show the future development of construction activity. Building permit is a document issued by a competent administrative body. Data for issued building permits provide information on issued permits by type of buildings-residential buildings and their dwellings, administrative buildings and other buildings and their gross building area.
Data on issued building permits are overtaken from the Central Register of Intergrated Procedures, which has been administered by the Serbian Business Registers Agency. In this survey includes all issued permits for all types of constructions and also issued permits for all type of works: new construction, renovation, reconstruction, maintenance. It covers building permits requested by individuals, construction companies, enterprises, local authorities, government organizations and the church. Data are absolute values, calculated on the bases of non-adjusted, calendar and seasonally adjusted forms.
3.2. Classification system
Classification of Type of Construction (CC);
Classification of Products by Activity in the European Economic Community (CPA).
Survey based on administrative source and data colected according to CC Classification, and converts to CPA Classification.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The indicators building permits are based on CPA codes.
Building permit is usually defined as permit issued at request, regulating beginning of works on construction according to the plan. It is a document issued by a competent administrative body.
Buildings refer to permanent constructions containing roof and outer walls, constructed as separate occupational units that provide protection from weather and other outside effects, with the purpose of living, performing some activities or keeping animals, goods and equipment needed for versatile production or service activities.
Dwelling is any construction unit intended for habitation, consisting of one or more rooms with functional areas for ancillary use (kitchen, bathroom, lobby, pantry, toilet, etc.) or without functional areas for ancillary use and with one or more separate entries, directly from the hall, staircase, from the garden or street.
3.5. Statistical unit
Data on issued building permits are overtaken from the Central Register of Intergrated Procedures, which has been administered by the Serbian Business Registers Agency.
Building permits are granted by the Ministry in charge of construction works in the Republic of Serbia, relevant authorities in autonomous province, city and municipality.
Observation units are all building permits issued for all types of constructions and works.
3.6. Statistical population
Number of dwellings new residential buildings and square meters of useful floor space residential and non-residential buildings according to issued building permits (CPA codes).
3.7. Reference area
Republic of Serbia.
(Remark: Since 1999, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia doesn’t dispose of certain data for AP Kosovo and Metohia, so they are not contained in the data coverage for the Republic of Serbia (total))
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data for Building Permits Indicators (new residential buildings excluding residencies for communities for number and all new buildings for useful floor area ) have been available since 2000.
The survey is conducted since 2006. 2006 edition was conducted as a pilot survey and since 2007 has been conducted as a regular statistical survey under the Regulation and included in the plan of offical statistics. Data for the period 2000-2006 were estimated.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable. The time series is expressed in absolute values.
Number of dwellings and square meters of useful floor area for buildings.
Quarter
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
National legislation: Official Statistics Law, Resolution on the Programme of official statistics, Regulation on the Plan of official statistics for the current year. The above documents are available at SORS website: National Legislation. EU Legislation for the Monthly Statistical Survey on Issued Building Permits: The European Parliament and Council adopted the European Business Statistics Regulation, followed by the Commission Implementing Regulation laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to the mentioned EBS Regulation (General Implementing Act). The former legal basis for the STS indicators is the Council Regulation concerning short term statistics and subsequent amending regulations.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
Data are regularly transmitted to Eurostat and IMF.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Data confidentiality is stipulated by: Official Statistics Law (Official Gazette of RS, number 109/2025), Articles 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49 Official Statistics Law, Rulebook on statistical data protection in the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia,
Confidential data are treated according to policy rules (see Official statistics law, point 7.1).
Data are published only on the level at which they are not confidential.
8.1. Release calendar
Calendar of releases is available at SORS website on the 1st day of December every year for the forthcoming year Release Calendar. All SORS releases are launched at 12.00. Any divergence from the defined time schedule are announced in advance and explained in the Calendar.
8.2. Release calendar access
Calendar of releases is available at SORS website: Release calendar
8.3. Release policy - user access
The data obtained through statistical surveys are released at the internet presentation SORS Website, in the database Database, in statistical releases and publications Statistical release. The results of official statistics are available at the same time to all users on impartial basis. Any privileged access by external users before their release is not allowed.
European level: quarterly
National level: monthly
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
News release is not available.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Data on building permits are regularly published in Statistical releases and Monthly statistical bulletin Publications
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Data on building permits are regularly published in online database since 2007.
10.4. Dissemination format - microdata access
On request, the access to anonymized microdata is ensured to scientific and research institutions. The request can be placed by email at stat@stat.gov.rs, or by regular mail addressed at 5 Milana Rakića St, Belgrade. For more information, please see Microdata Access.
10.5. Dissemination format - other
Data on building permits are transmitted to Eurostat quarterly, beginning with the 1st quarter of 2000. The data are transmitted in SDMX form.
10.6. Documentation on methodology
The Methodology of Short-term Business Statistics, Interpretation and guidelines, 2006, contains a comprehensive set of recommendations on the compilation of the STS statistics.
The SORS quality management system is relied on the Serbian official statistics mission and vision, as well as on the European Statistics Code of Practice – CoP and the Total Quality Management – TQM principles, which together make the common quality framework of the European Statistical System (ESS). For more information, please see the documents at Quality management system.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Data on building permits are produced in accordance with methodological requirements and standards. All users needs are fulfilled because the statistical survey includes all issued building permits and for all types of constructions. Coverage is the whole territory. Before results are presented to users, additional quality control of statistical data is performed and data are compared with previous and corresponding period and checks with different source are made. The results of this survey are comparable with the results of the annually and quarterly survey on construction activity. The publication schedule is fixed and announced in advance.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Users of statistical data on building permits issued can be found in all areas of economic and social life, beginning with individual citizens, business entities, media, bodies of state government and local self-government units as well as academic, scientific and research institutions and non-government organizations and Eurostat.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
On biennial basis (once in two years), by the means of web interview, implemented is the User Satisfaction Survey. The survey results are available at SORS website: Quality management system.
12.3. Completeness
Data are consistent with the requirements of STS Regulation and short-term methodological manual.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
In this survey includes all the issued building permits.
The data has being downloaded from an administrative source from the beginning of 2018, and since then data revisions are almost non-existent. Therefore, in most cases the published data can be considered final.
In 2025, there was no subsequent entry.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
Cover whole population. Data for all building permits are collected.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Data on building permits are undertaken from the administrative source. The response rate is 100%.
Technical errors, that occur when entering administrative data, are often recognized with automated logical control checks, after downloading the data. A lot of checks are carried out automatically, but some of them request human interaction. The impact of these changes on the results has not been measured so far.
14.1. Timeliness
All data on issued building permits are overtakeing from the Central Register of Integrated Procedures 5 days after the end of the reference month.
Collection and controle data is finished in 30 days after the end of the reference month.
Indicators are transmitted to Eurostat 90 days after the end of the reference period in required form. For national purposes, data are disseminated 45 days after the end of the reference month.
14.2. Punctuality
All data are published according to the announced Publications calendar.
The same concepts are used within the whole national territory.
Monthly survey on issued building permits provides data that are harmonized with the EU recommendations, definitions and classifications.
15.2. Comparability - over time
All data available since 2000.
The survey is conducted since 2006. 2006 edition was conducted as a pilot survey and since 2007 has been conducted as a regular statistical survey under the Regulation and included in the plan of offical statistics. Data for the period 2000-2006 were estimated.
15.3. Coherence - cross domain
Building permits issued is good leader indicator for future construction activity. Results of the survey on construction building permits were compared with the annually and quarterly survey on construction activity and the conclusion is that there is a strong connection between the mentioned surveys.
15.4. Coherence - internal
There are no problems regarding internal consistence of the time series. Data are internal coherent because they are based on a common methodology for data collection and data processing, ensuring data quality after the checks. The higher aggregates i.e. types of construction according to CPA are consistent with their main sub-aggregates.
Not applicable.
17.1. Data revision - policy
The SORS general revision policy constitutes the global frame ensuring that each statistical domain shall define its own revision policy in compliance with its specific nature.
The general SORS revision policy determines: general rules of revisions of the published data, forms of informing users as regards the possible causes of revisions, categories of revisions and documents covering all aspects of revisions.
The general SORS revision policy is available at Revision policy.
The data has being downloaded from an administrative source from the beginning of 2018, and since then data revisions are almost non-existent.
Generally, the same revision policy is applied for publishing of national data and for data transmitted to Eurostat.
Benchmarking (confrontation) with other statistics is not carried out.
17.2. Data revision - practice
The data has being downloaded from an administrative source from the beginning of 2018, and since then data revisions are almost non-existent. Therefore, in most cases the published data can be considered final. There was no subsequent entry. There were no revision in the data for building permits. For that reason, MAR (Mean Absolute Revision)=0 and MR (Mean Revision)=0. Major revisions are made when there are change of classification and change of the methodology according to STS Regulations. Users are informed about the results and changes immediately.The general practice is that all changes in the methodology are explained when data based on the new methodology are published for the first time.The data have been obtained from an administrative source starting from early 2018, with minimal subsequent revisions. The published data can generally be considered final. No further entries or revisions have been made to the building permits data, resulting in MAR = 0 and MR = 0. Substantial revisions typically occur only in cases of changes in classification or methodology, pursuant to STS Regulations. Users are promptly notified of any outcomes and modifications. It is standard procedure to provide comprehensive explanations of all methodological changes upon the first publication of data based on the revised methodology.
18.1. Source data
Statistical census survey based on administrative data. All data on issued building permits are overtakeing from the Central Register of Integrated Procedures, which has been administered by the Serbian Business Registers Agency. The coverage is full, that is, statistical survey includes all issued building permits. 29 713 building permits were issued in 2025.
18.2. Frequency of data collection
Data are collected monthly.
18.3. Data collection
The data on issued building permits are overtakeing from the Central Register of Integrated Procedures which has been administered by the Serbian Business Registers Agency.
Statistical office of Serbia has direct access to building permits register through user accounts.
18.4. Data validation
The following actions are performed for data validation:
monitoring and analyzing the data completeness
consulting with the responsible authorities bodies if need to confirm data of the reference month
controlling, analyzing as well as explaining errors and data outliers (correction of unit data).
For logical control and corrections of errors Integrated Survey Tool (IST) is used . IST is a software package that enabled the process of data entry, logical control and production of output tables.
Confrontation with other statistics is not applicable because there are no other adequate sources of data.
18.5. Data compilation
The coverage is full, that is, statistical survey includes all issued building permits.
There are no non-response rates, because administrative body competent for construction affairs are contacted by phone and asked to provide the missing data.
18.6. Adjustment
Data on building permits are presented only as absolute values.
Data on building permits has been seasonal and calendar adjusted in accordance with STS requirements, since 2022.
A building permit is an authorisation to start work on a building project. The objective of the building permits indicator is to show the future development of construction activity. Building permit is a document issued by a competent administrative body. Data for issued building permits provide information on issued permits by type of buildings-residential buildings and their dwellings, administrative buildings and other buildings and their gross building area.
Data on issued building permits are overtaken from the Central Register of Intergrated Procedures, which has been administered by the Serbian Business Registers Agency. In this survey includes all issued permits for all types of constructions and also issued permits for all type of works: new construction, renovation, reconstruction, maintenance. It covers building permits requested by individuals, construction companies, enterprises, local authorities, government organizations and the church. Data are absolute values, calculated on the bases of non-adjusted, calendar and seasonally adjusted forms.
Building permit is usually defined as permit issued at request, regulating beginning of works on construction according to the plan. It is a document issued by a competent administrative body.
Buildings refer to permanent constructions containing roof and outer walls, constructed as separate occupational units that provide protection from weather and other outside effects, with the purpose of living, performing some activities or keeping animals, goods and equipment needed for versatile production or service activities.
Dwelling is any construction unit intended for habitation, consisting of one or more rooms with functional areas for ancillary use (kitchen, bathroom, lobby, pantry, toilet, etc.) or without functional areas for ancillary use and with one or more separate entries, directly from the hall, staircase, from the garden or street.
Data on issued building permits are overtaken from the Central Register of Intergrated Procedures, which has been administered by the Serbian Business Registers Agency.
Building permits are granted by the Ministry in charge of construction works in the Republic of Serbia, relevant authorities in autonomous province, city and municipality.
Observation units are all building permits issued for all types of constructions and works.
Number of dwellings new residential buildings and square meters of useful floor space residential and non-residential buildings according to issued building permits (CPA codes).
Republic of Serbia.
(Remark: Since 1999, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia doesn’t dispose of certain data for AP Kosovo and Metohia, so they are not contained in the data coverage for the Republic of Serbia (total))
Quarter
In this survey includes all the issued building permits.
The data has being downloaded from an administrative source from the beginning of 2018, and since then data revisions are almost non-existent. Therefore, in most cases the published data can be considered final.
In 2025, there was no subsequent entry.
Number of dwellings and square meters of useful floor area for buildings.
The coverage is full, that is, statistical survey includes all issued building permits.
There are no non-response rates, because administrative body competent for construction affairs are contacted by phone and asked to provide the missing data.
Statistical census survey based on administrative data. All data on issued building permits are overtakeing from the Central Register of Integrated Procedures, which has been administered by the Serbian Business Registers Agency. The coverage is full, that is, statistical survey includes all issued building permits. 29 713 building permits were issued in 2025.
European level: quarterly
National level: monthly
All data on issued building permits are overtakeing from the Central Register of Integrated Procedures 5 days after the end of the reference month.
Collection and controle data is finished in 30 days after the end of the reference month.
Indicators are transmitted to Eurostat 90 days after the end of the reference period in required form. For national purposes, data are disseminated 45 days after the end of the reference month.
The same concepts are used within the whole national territory.
Monthly survey on issued building permits provides data that are harmonized with the EU recommendations, definitions and classifications.
All data available since 2000.
The survey is conducted since 2006. 2006 edition was conducted as a pilot survey and since 2007 has been conducted as a regular statistical survey under the Regulation and included in the plan of offical statistics. Data for the period 2000-2006 were estimated.
