Statistics Austria

Directorate "Business Statistics" - Indicators, STS-Coordination

Guglgasse 13, 1110 Vienna, Austria

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.

Classification of Types of Constructions (CC)

Activity coverage: 

• The construction costs index for construction of residential buildings is based on different types of buildings.
• The costs indices for civil engineering cover activities of road and bridge construction as well as of sanitary engineering.

Size coverage: No threshold in terms of size criteria is used.

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.

Base 2020: from 01/2021 onwards

In general, the construction cost index in the present form reaches back to 1990.
An older index for the construction of residential buildings is the "Maculan index" from 1945, which was replaced in 1990 (data concerning Maculan index nationally available on www.statistik.at).

Base year: 2020 (rebased to 2021 according to EBS)

Reference year: 2023

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.

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

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

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

Legalbasis:

The "Federal Statistics Act 2000" ("Bundesstatistikgesetz 2000", Federal Law Gazette I No. 163/1999) passed in August 1999 is in force since January 2000. The "Bundesstatistikgesetz 2000" was consolidated to the "Bundesstatistikgesetz 2000 - konsolidierte Fassung 2009" (BGBl. I No. 163/1999 as amended by BGBl. I No. 136/2001, BGBl. I No. 71/2003, BGBl. I No. 92/2007, BGBl. I No. 125/2009, BGBl. I No. 111/2010, BGBl. I No. 40/2014, BGBl. I Nr. 30/2018, BGBl. I No. 32/2018, BGBl. I No. 205/2021 and BGBl. I No. 185/2022).

EU regulation (current and historical)

In addition there is a national regulation concerning price indices: BGBl. II No. 147/2007:

„Verordnung: Erstellung von Indizes der Preisentwicklung in der Wirtschaft“ as amended by BGBl. II No. 36/2009, BGBl. II No. 263/2012, BGBl. II No. 222/2015, BGBl. II No. 223/2019, BGBl. II No. 67/2022 and BGBl. II No. 75/2023.

Obligationonunitstoprovidedata:

There is no legal obligation for the units to respond.

Not applicable. No data are transmitted to other international organisations (except Eurostat).

The general obligation to publish statistics and the strict provision on statistical confidentiality is regulated by the “Federal Statistics Act 2000” ("Bundesstatistikgesetz 2000") in the consolidated version of "Bundesstatistikgesetz 2000 - konsolidierte Fassung 2009” (BGBl. I No. 163/1999 as amended by BGBl. I No. 136/2001, BGBl. I No. 71/2003, BGBl. I No.

92/2007, BGBl. I No. 125/2009, BGBl. I No. 111/2010, BGBl. I No. 40/2014, BGBl. I No.

30/2018, BGBl. I No. 32/2018, BGBl. I No. 205/2021 and BGBl. I No. 185/2022).

The protection of personal data is covered by the “Data Protection Act 2000” ("Datenschutzgesetz 2000 (DSG 2000)", Austrian Federal Law Gazette I No. 165/1999 as amended by BGBl. I No. 136/2001, BGBl. I No. 13/2005, BGBl. I No. 2/2008, BGBl. I No. 133/2009, BGBl. I No. 135/2009, BGBl. I No. 112/2011, BGBl. I No. 51/2012, BGBl. I No.

57/2013, BGBl. I No. 83/2013, BGBl. I No. 132/2015, BGBl. I No. 120/2017, BGBl. I No.

23/2018, BGBl. I No. 24/2018, BGBl. I No. 14/2019, BGBl. I No. 148/2021 and BGBl. I No. 2/2023).

Not applicable. Only the index is compiled and published (aggregated data).

A release calendar covering release dates of the first/second half of the year is published on the website of Statistics Austria.

https://www.statistik.at/en/medien/release-calendar

Simultaneous release to all interested parties

No users have prior access to the data before its general release. Data are made available to all users simultaneously in the Statistics Austria press release, which is disseminated by the Austrian Press Agency. The press release is also available on the website of Statistics Austria.

Transmission to Eurostat and further use of the statistics

According to the release calendar data concerning construction of residential buildings are transmitted monthly to Eurostat at the same time of national publication 15 days after the end of the month.

Data concerning road and bridge construction are not transmitted to Eurostat (because these indicators are not part of the STS-regulation No 1165/98).

Monthly t+15 days

Data are made available in the Statistics Austria press release, which is disseminated by the Austrian Press Agency. The press release is also available on the website of Statistics Austria.

• Press releases
• STATcube
• "Statistics in short“ in "Statistische Nachrichten“ (monthly)
• Facts & Figures ("Österreichischer Zahlenspiegel“)
• Austrian.Data.Figures.Facts
• Monthly Rapid Reports
• "Statistisches Jahrbuch Österreichs 20xx" (Austrian Statistical Year Book) - chapter 23
• Austrian Economic Atlas (Wirtschaftsatlas Österreich)

Monthly data is published at the database STATcube (http://statcube.at/statcube/home):

Frequency: monthly

Length of time series:

• from 01/2021 onward (Base 2020)
• from 01/2016 to 12/2020 (Base 2015)
• from 01/2011 to 12/2015 (Base 2010)
• from 01/2006 to 12/2010 (Base 2005)
• from 01/2001 to 12/2005 (Base 2000)

Presentation:

Monthly three indices are published separately.

1.) Construction costs index for residential buildings covering residential buildings, broken down by:

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

2.) Construction costs index for road construction, broken down by:

overall road construction costs (total, wages, materials);

• total and the component “materials” are broken down by 30 costs groups
• indicator for Bitumen regarding the country of origin (Bitumen total, domestic, foreign, Germany, Italy and other countries).

3.) Construction costs index for bridge construction, broken down by: 

• total and the component “materials” are broken down by 31 costs groups.

4.) Construction costs index for sanitary engineering, broken down by:

• overall sanitary engineering costs (total, wages, materials);
• total and the component "materials" are broken down by 26 costs groups

Gross data is presented monthly as
— an index (with the current base year 2020)
— a period-on-previous-period growth rate and
— a period-on-same-period of-previous-year growth rate

No regional breakdown is published.

Not applicable.

Data are sent to Eurostat to be used in European aggregates and/or to be released as national data.

Dissemination of documentation on methodology and sources used in preparing statistics

Standard-Dokumentation: covers different aspects of a statistical product like administrative information, conceptual aspects, production of the statistics and publication of resulting figures. Complementing the detailed information on all phases of the statistical production process and the description of the statistical concepts as well as the applied methodology the last chapter refers to quality.

Baupreise und Baukosten – Basis 2020

Methodological Papers:

• Statistische Nachrichten 11/2021: Baukostenindex, Basisjahr 2020
• Statistische Nachrichten 9/2016: Baukostenindex, Basisjahr 2015
• Statistische Nachrichten 5/2011: Baukostenindex, Basisjahr 2010

Further sources:

• Contributions to Austrian Statistics ("Beiträge zur österreichischen Statistik"):
  Konjunkturerhebung im Produzierenden Bereich 200x: Band 1: Ergebnisse auf Unternehmens- und Betriebsebene sowie Indizes
• Monthly Rapid Reports ("Monatliche Schnellberichte"):
  Schnellbericht Nr. 2.12 – Baukostenindex für den Wohnhaus- und Siedlungsbau Schnellbericht Nr. 2.14 – Baukostenindex für den Straßen-, Brücken- und Siedlungswasserbau;

The following documentations are published on the website of Statistics Austria:

• An extensive report of quality and other concerns regarding construction output prices and construction costs (Standard-Dokumentation Baupreise und Baukosten – Basis 2020): Chapter 3 “Quality”.
• Statistics Austria publishes general quality guidelines (“Statistik Austria Qualitätsrichtlinien”) which are also available on the website.

Quality checks and validation of data are done throughout the whole compilation process. This is described in the standardised metadata and quality report for short-term statistics concerning construction output prices and construction costs on the website of Statistics Austria (Standard-Dokumentation).

Chapter 3 “Quality” of this national quality report contains the following points:
— relevance
— accuracy (sampling Errors, non-sampling-errors, revisions, …)
— timeliness and punctuality
— accessibility and clarity of the information
— comparability
— coherence with other statistics

Relevant changes are discussed with national experts and the Quality Committee of the Statistical Council of Statistics Austria for feedback and modification suggestions.

A special working group is convoked for quality reasons. The members get the latest information of the construction costs indices. They are also a consulting and deciding part for the revisions which have to take place every 5 years.

Construction costs indexes are used as a basis of valuation of contracts with indexation or price adjustment clauses.

Construction costs indices are used by different national and international institutions and non-institutional users:

• Institutions: Federal Ministries, Federal Chancellery of the Republic of Austria, National Central Bank (OeNB), political institutions (e.g. parliament), local authorities, Austrian Institute of Economic Research
• Government authorities (like ASFINAG)
• International institutions: Eurostat, ECB, OECD, UN, IMF
• National and international enterprises
• Social actors: social partners, trade unions
• Researchers and Educational Institutions (Universities)
• Media
• Enterprises/businesses
• Internal users
• Public (tenant)

To meet the above mentioned user’s needs there is on the one hand the working group who regularly meet for the revisions and for discussing the improvements of the quality aspects. On the other hand we have several (plausibility) checks during the data compilation to guarantee the data quality. As a consequence, a prompt dissemination of qualitative indices is expected from the users.

The construction costs index is fully compliant regarding STS-Regulation.

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. 

The primary (voluntary) survey includes only four product groups and is dependent of the voluntary support of the asked companies. The information of the other elements is taken from secondary data which is already checked. This further improves the quality of the indices.  

To guarantee a representative basket of goods the indices have to be revised every 5 years. Especially new construction methods and materials have to be reflected by the indices and therefore the weights have to be adjusted. The whole revision is based on two research projects.

Response rate of primary survey: 95%

Actions to speed up or increase the rate of response: telephone contact.

Rest: administrative sources (telephone contact if necessary).

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.

Dissemination takes places according to the release calendar without any delays.

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.

Other data sets (but only limited cross-checks are possible):
— Wholesale price indices
— Construction output price index
— Industrial output price index

There is a relation between the construction costs indices and the construction output price indices. Usually the construction costs figure the costs of the input factors of the construction objects (e.g. materials, wages). Whereas the construction output price indices are calculated as sum of construction costs, productivity and profit margins

Concerning internal coherence, the total costs are calculated from the labor and the other (materials) costs.

As the calculation and the dissemination is prescribed by the Austrian ministries of Economy, family and youth, of Finance, of Transport and of Justice and by the EU-STS-Regulation (EG) Nr. 1158/2005 the costs are fully absorbed.

The usage of secondary data keeps the burden and costs for companies low because only few companies participate in a primary (voluntary) survey of four product groups. Therefore no burdens at the calculation of the indices are noteworthy.

Because of the usage of secondary data (e.g. whole sale or producer price indices) the construction costs indices are not final from the beginning. The last two published months are always preliminary and become final after t+75days. The reason for the late finalization is the usage of the producer price indices which usually turns final at t+60 days.

According to the release calendar the final index is available 15 days after the end of the reference month (and is revised 75 days after the reference month).
Methodological changes are announced at the time of change.

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

Data are collected on a monthly basis.

Mainly administrative sources are used.
Primary survey for four product groups: shuttle questionnaires are used.
The reporting units and the administrative sources are invited to co-operate on a voluntary basis.

Data is sent from the data owner of the specific statistic (e.g. wholesale price) by Email. Data collection is done in several datasets. Results are also saved in several datasets.

Plausibilty checks are conducted regularly during the calculation of the indices. Furthermore, the usage of already checked secondary data also improves the data quality of the 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.

The Austrian construction costs index is a fixed base year Laspeyres index (current base year is 2020) whose weights and basket of goods are revised every five years.
The indices are neither working day, nor seasonally adjusted.

Construction costs index for residential buildings:
This index covers only residential buildings and shows the changes in building costs (materials costs and labour costs) from the point of view of the building contractor (to carry out the construction process).
The concept of the construction costs index takes into account the type of construction and the size of the buildings.

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