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National reference metadata

Austria

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Producer prices in construction or construction costs

National Reference Metadata in Euro SDMX Metadata Structure (ESMS)

Compiling agency: Statistics Austria

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Until the end of the 1980's, an index of the changes in building costs was calculated by the Ministry for Economic Affairs in addition to the indices compiled by the Federal Building Industry Association (“Bundesinnung der Baugewerbe”). Then the Ministry decided to hand over the calculation of a harmonised system of building factor costs to Statistics Austria.

The construction costs index is broken down into the following sub-indices:

Construction costs index for construction of residential buildings, broken down by:

  • overall building costs (total, wages, materials)
  • contractor costs (total, wages, materials)

Construction costs index for road construction, broken down by:

  • overall road construction costs (total, wages, materials);
  • the component "materials" is broken down by 30 costs groups (split into total and materials (other)).

Construction costs index for bridge construction, broken down by:

  • overall bridge construction costs (total, wages, materials);
  • the component "materials" is broken down by 31 costs groups (split into total and materials (other)).

Construction costs index for sanitary engineering, broken down by:

  • overall sanitary engineering costs (total, wages, materials);
  • the component "materials" is broken down by 26 costs groups (split into total and materials (other)).

The construction costs index is an input price index. The aim of the construction costs indices is to show the evolution of factor costs (materials and labour costs) incurred by the contractor to carry out the construction process. In Austria the construction costs indices are used very frequently for value safety devices.

15 June 2024

The construction costs index for residential buildings shows the evolution of the costs of construction of residential buildings from the enterprise's point of view. They are measured as a weighted average of the prices of the two input factors needed to construct a building: wages and materials. The index does not include productivity, margins and taxes linked to the activity of construction.
The price indices entering in the compilation of the index refer mainly to domestic prices.

The costs are determined for building works carried out by the contractor and other trades such as electricians or plumbers; they cover standard site preparation, main building activities, joinery, painting and sanitary installations. Parts of building installations and completion, furniture and taxes are not covered. In addition, "service" activities are included in the index: for example costs of design, tendering, preparation of applications and work schedule, site supervision. Also included are transport and energy costs. Costs of the purchase of the plot, site development and costs for special foundations are not covered.

The road construction costs index covers only road construction costs and the bridge construction costs index covers only bridge construction costs. Also the index for sanitary engineering covers only costs of sanitary engineering. These indices are also measured as a weighted average of the prices of the two input factors wages and materials (needed to construct roads, bridges and canalisation). For the wage component the contractor's wage of the construction costs index for residential buildings is used. The materials component is largely calculated from price information from the wholesale price index and industrial output price index.

On the website of Statistics Austria, the basket of the construction costs index can be found: https://www.statistik.at/en/statistics/industry-construction-trade-and-services/short-term-business-statistics/construction-cost-index

Reporting unit:

In the case of primary survey: enterprise.
For the rest: administrative source.


Price information is mainly available from secondary sources (for example wholesale price and industrial output price index, collective agreements) and a small part from price information of enterprises.

  • Administrative sources: 64 product groups
  • Primary survey: 4 product groups

Observation unit:

Prices are collected for a "basket of construction components".
The different products (wages and materials) can be found on the website of Statistics Austria: https://www.statistik.at/en/statistics/industry-construction-trade-and-services/short-term-business-statistics/construction-cost-index

Building construction and civil engineering objects for all regions of Austria. The basket of goods includes 56 product groups for the construction of residential buildings and 34 product groups for construction of roads and bridges and for sanitary engineering which are observed each month.

All regions of Austria are included.

The deadlines regarding the data collection is on the 15th of the reporting month.

Dissemination of preliminary data is on the 15th of the second following month.

Final data is available on 15th of the third following month.

The basis for the calculation of the indices and the representative basket of goods are determined by two research assignments (either one for construction of residential buildings and for civil engineering). The most important cost factors are covered in the price data collection. The representative elements of the basket of goods should reflect the actual construction methods and use already existing data sources as information of the elements’ prices. Therefore, the construction costs indices use data which have already passed plausibility checks. 

Price developments of representative production factors used in the construction sector are monthly collected. This includes input of construction materials, labor and wage costs, usage of machines etc.

Each price of an individual construction operation (according to the basket of goods) is depicted as indicator in relation to the prices of the base year (2020). These indicators are aggregated to group and sub-indices.

Estimates for non-response:

Primary survey: Non-response is treated by using prices of previous periods.
Administrative sources: one of the main secondary source which is used concerns measured data from the wholesale price index (WPI); in the case of the WPI missing prices are computed according to the price changes of other price quotations for the same product.

Type of index:

The Austrian construction costs index is a fixed base year Laspeyres index (current base year: 2020) whose weights and basket of goods are revised every five years.

The construction costs index is made up of aggregated prices for materials, labour costs and other types of costs for residential buildings (construction costs index for residential buildings), for roads (road construction costs index), for bridges (bridge construction costs index) and sanitary engineering (sanitary engineering construction costs index).

The index is a weighted average of the prices of the wages and materials costs, compared with the corresponding average price of the base period (2020).

Method of weighting and chaining:

Concerning the basket of products (wages and materials) and weights see website of Statistics Austria: https://www.statistik.at/en/statistics/industry-construction-trade-and-services/short-term-business-statistics/construction-cost-index

Construction costs index for residential buildings
The "wages costs" component is a weighted average of:

  • the building contractor's wage component;
  • wage components for carpenter, locksmith and painter.

The "other costs" component (materials) is mainly calculated on the basis of weighted data for the products represented in the wholesale price index, index of transport costs and information of recycled construction materials.

Type of source: Sample

Construction costs index for residential buildings: mainly administrative sources and a small primary survey for 4 product groups.

Construction costs index for roads, bridges and sanitary engineering: mainly administrative sources and a small primary survey for 4 product groups.

The following administrative sources are used:

  • Wholesale price indices;
  • Price information from Industrial output price index;
  • Labour input information from the STS survey concerning the NACE Sections F (wages and salaries, hours worked for the construction sector);
  • Collective agreements;
  • Social costs (provided by "Bundesinnung der Baugewerbe");
  • Index of transport costs;
  • Information of recycled construction materials.

Frame on which the source is based: Business Register

Frequency of updating the sample: Every five years

Monthly t+15 days

According to the release calendar, 15 days after the end of the reporting month (t+15) the index is published as a preliminary index and turns final at t+75.

Administrative sources and primary data: available: 8-12 days after the reporting month.
Plausibility checks and corrections: 12-14 days after the reporting month.

According to the EU regulation Nr. 1165/98 the compilation of the construction costs index for construction of residential buildings is obliged; therefore in this case an international comparability is provided. 

On national level, no explicit national weighting is done because of the usage of secondary data such as the wholesale price index where the index is calculated for whole of Austria. There is no national distinction of the construction cost index – it is valid for whole of Austria.

Every revision includes the calculation of chain linking factors which guarantee comparability over time. Different weighting schemes and scopes are not depicted with the factors. The construction costs index for construction of residential buildings has the longest time series and reaches back until 1945.