Methodology
The metadata on house price and sales index (HPI) and owner-occupied housing price index (OOHPI) gathers sources and summary information about data quality and the production process in general, under a standard structure.
The national statistical institutes (NSIs) producing housing price statistics data are also documenting their national practices in order to make European statistics more accessible and clearer. These metadata are available via the HPI and OOHPI files referred above.
House price data might be revised due to methodological changes in the data collected by the EU countries. In the table below, countries are listed by revision dates.
Country | Revision date | Revised periods | Coverage | Explanation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Belgium | 4 March 2024 | Q1 2015- Q3 2023 |
HPI OOHPI |
Changes in item weights, aggregation procedure and hedonic method (see methodological note). |
Netherlands | 4 March 2024 |
Q1 2015- |
HPI OOHPI |
Changes in weight calculation and improvement of index compilation methodology (see methodological note for HPI and OOHPI). |
Austria | 4 March 2024 | Q1 2010- Q3 2023 |
HPI |
Data processing improvement, exclusion of prefabricated houses and inclusion of transaction prices for the calculation of the price index for newly built dwellings. Refinements in the hedonic repricing method, and changes of weight calculation (see methodological note). |
Finland | 7 October 2022 |
Q1 2015- |
HPI OOHPI HSALES |
Exclusion of self-build dwellings and improvements in the calculation formula as well as in the weights for new and existing dwellings. |
Portugal | 8 April 2022 |
Q2 2019- |
HPI OOHPI HSALES |
Access to more detailed information from the tax and custom authority (for details, see the methodological note from Statistics Portugal) |
France | 8 July 2021 | Q1 2006- Q4 2020 |
HPI HSALES |
Change of the weights for new and existing dwellings due to an adjustment of the estimation method for the value of housing transactions. |
Hungary | 7 October 2019 | Q1 2017- Q1 2019 |
HPI OOHPI |
Change in the housing quality composition index (see methodological notes). |
Germany | 10 July 2019 |
Q1 2016- |
HPI OOHPI |
Mostly to reflect improvements in capturing the locations of property transactions. |
Slovenia | 10 July 2019 | Q1 2018- Q4 2018 |
HPI OOHPI |
Corrections in the calculation process. |
Netherlands | 10 July 2018 |
Q1 2010- |
HPI OOHPI |
Methodological improvements in the price index for newly built dwellings. |
Italy | 10 July 2018 | Q1 2010- Q4 2017 |
HPI OOHPI |
Reflect the change towards a more complete administrative data source. |
Cyprus | 19 January 2017 | Q1 2015- Q2 2016 |
HPI OOHPI |
The break in the HPI series for Q1 2015 observable in the database is due to model refinement and the exploitation of more available data (for details, see section 16.2 of the metadata document) |
Ireland | 12 October 2016 |
Q12010- |
HPI OOHPI |
Change towards more complete administrative data sources. Full details can be found on the Irish CSO website. |
Housing markets across Europe have been affected by the COVID-19 crisis, though to varying degrees in different countries.
For further details, please consult our guidance note for national statistical institutes (NSIs) on compilation of the house price index (HPI) and the owner-occupied housing price index (OOHPI) during the COVID-19 crisis (released on 17 July 2020).
The house price index (HPI) and the owner-occupied housing price index (OOHPI) series are published with reference year 2015 = 100.
EU regulation 2016/792 on harmonised indices of consumer prices (HICP) and the house price index (HPI) provides the legal basis for the common reference year 2015 = 100 for HPI and OOHPI and its future updates.
Please consult also our methodological publications.