Real estate price data accessibility in Finland Baltic Valuation Congress Reykjavik Risto Peltola National Land Survey, Finland

Institutions Providers of data Data is generated in or is provided by government units, such as National Land Survey, Ministry of Environment, Statistics Finland and taxation authorities. Commercial data is provided by firms such as KTI Property Information Ltd, Catella, Realia and Newsec. Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Legal protection of personal data Personal data is strictly protected by law, and sales price data is personal data in most legal terms. The law on personal data was issued in 1999, and it is based on a European Union Directive on data protection. The interpretation of the law is such, that sales prices of property are secret, and cannot be published without the permission of the persons involved. However, the sales prices are open data, if the prices cannot be connected to a particular property. For the valuation point of view, this is ridiculous. There is legislation that dates back to time before the law on personal data, namely the law on official real estate price register, given in According to that law, the price data is open. A funny (and frustrating) situation is at hand: some price data is open and there is technically easy access to it, and some very similar data is closed. Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Official real estate price register Juridical basis Law concerning purchase price register of real estates was given 1980 National Land Survey of Finland is upkeeping authority The purpose of the register is to facilitate valuation Public record

Collecting data A written contract is needed for a real estate deal The contract must be attested by a notary public The District Survey Office gets a copy of the deal, inspects it and supplements other information

Notice of assignment Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Data in the register The identifying data – Cadastre number, name of real estate Basic data – Price, area, use, qualities – Buyer and seller Other: – Approximate coordinates – Located on shore? – Buildings included? – Plans? Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Data management Based on: the information in sales contracts announcement of notary public About deals/year 30 persons involved Delay 1 month Saving to JAKO –system JAKO is a GIS – database includes: – Cadastre » cadastral map » information service – Purchase price register – Topographic Data System » roads » communications networks » fields and waterways » rocks » buildings » elevations » road database + addresses …

Query window in WEB Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Data output Information about a single deal The register is also online use in the public datanet

List of purchases Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Data matrix One-family house building lot in Hämeenlinna Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Annual Statistics Overview and background information Used in – appraisal – taxation Statistics over – whole Finland – provinces – municipalities Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

COSTS TO NATIONAL LAND SURVEY OF FINLAND – expenses 1 million €/year – income 0,2 million €/year TO CUSTOMERS – 2,35 €/deal (in land survey office) – For mass users prices are much lower Mapsite

EXAMPLE OF THE PROCESSED DATA Year Monthly price of single-family house Helsinki area Other Finland Cost–of-living index Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

PROS AND CONS Whole country in one register Easy to use by the Internet Query terms freely selectable Over deals – price trends – price factors Cheap to use u Does not cover flat sales  Flat are not ”real estate” in Finland u Poor information on buildings u Poor information on plans + -

Data on actual prices Sales prices of condominiums There are two main sources of price data, both of which are not open to public: 1.The data with almost 100 % coverage of transactions is the data collected by taxation authorities. 2.The data collected by Real Estate Agents covers perhaps 75 % of all sales of condominiums. Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

House price data collected by taxation authorities The data with almost 100 % coverage of transactions is the data collected by taxation authorities. As condominium wealth transfers are taxed by a 2 % tax of sales price, the authorities have to keep a record of all transactions. However, this record cannot be used to any commercial purposes, nor is it open to general public. The only use outside of taxation of transfers is in the indexetion purposes in Statistics Finland. Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Flat price data collected by Real Estate Agents The data collected by Real Estate Agents covers perhaps 75 % of all sales of condominiums. Then again, as with the taxation sales price data, this data is not easily available to any commercial purposes, nor is it open to general public. However, part of data is available in a special condominium price data run by the Ministry of Environment and Housing. Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Sales prices of condominiums offered by the government The open source of price data is offered by the government: Condominium prices by the Ministry of Environment and Housing covers most of the data collected by Real Estate Agents, or % of the data depending on the city. The Ministry of Environment and Housing has made a deal with five largest brokers to have their sales data in a public service. However, only sales of the last 12 months can be seen, and only nine attributes of sale (area, number of rooms, floor area, price, unit price per floor area, vintage, floor number, quality, lift). Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Sales prices of condominiums offered by the government Besides, the quality of the data has been artificially made worse, so that identity of the object cannot be found. Even so, this service has dramatically increased the amount of sales data available to general public, and increased the price knowledge of people interested in residential prices. This government web site can be found at: It is interesting that the government web site had to rely on commercial data, as the complete data, originating in taxation authorities and developed by Statistics Finland, was not available. Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Sales prices of single family homes Sales prices of single family homes are included in the official real estate price register and there is easy access to the data. There is a small market segment where no data is available, namely single family homes on leased lots. The sales prices of those houses are not within any open data. Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Rental prices A government web site by the Ministry of Environment and Housing offers data on rental agreements: The service only covers 8 largest cities (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Tampere, Oulu, Turku, Jyväskylä and Lahti). As to the city of Helsinki, 1516 rental prices can be found by the time of my writing. Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Land prices Sales prices of land sold are included in the official real estate price register and there is easy access to the data. Around sales of land (without buildings) are made annually, two thirds of them lots and one third is forest and arable land. Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Commercial, office and industrial real estate prices The best data on business real estate prices (purchase and rental) are offered by commercial sources, most important of which are KTI Property Information Ltd, Catella, Realia and Newsec Most of them also offer property outlooks in english for free. Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Asking prices There are several commercial web sites that advertise property on sale, and the three dominant portals are: The number of property for sale in these media is following Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Asking prices The number of property for sale in these media is following Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Prices indices Residential prices indices: Statistics Finland Statistics Finland offers a wide range of indices in its website. Most indices are quarterly indices, but some are annual or monthly Overview of housing related indices, see Index examples: Monthly indices, see Rents, see Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Residential prices indices: Statistics Finland A sophisticated search engine is in use, so the user is able to define the mix himself. See: es+of+prices+of+dwellings%2C+1970%3D100%2C+1983%3D100+and+ 2000%3D100&path=../Database/StatFin/asu/ashi/&lang=1&multilang= en In official statistics the metadata is sophisticated (e.g.quality descriptions, methodological descriptions, concepts and definitions, classifications).. Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Residential prices indices: other than Statistics Finland Orava residential REIT has introduced “a high frequency residential prices index”, based on asking prices of homes. New index numbers are calculated every day, if not every hour. del2012.pdf Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Other prices indices National Land Surveys calculates a semi- annual index of residential lots, see: et/2012/03/real-estate-sales economic-recession-seems-be-over (the linked publication is in Finnish only) Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey

Conclusion For most practical purposes the data on house prices is almost always satisfactory. The information on property for sale or for rent is best, but a potential buyer has also access to actual sales prices through the government web site. Unfortunately, for some dubious data protection reasons, the sales price data is not connected to the particular property involved, but to the larger area where the sale was made. As to the data on business properties one has to rely on commercial vendors. Real estate price data accessibility in Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey