Real estate price data accessibility
in Finland
Baltic Valuation Congress
Reykjavik 20.9.2013
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 1980. 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
Real estate price data accessibility in
Risto
Peltola,very
National
Land Survey
technically easy access toFinland,
it, and
some
similar
data is closed.
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
http://www.om.fi/uploads/5pllkoch.pdf
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 80 000 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
www.karttapaikka.fi
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
National Land Survey - Mapsite 8.9.2007
ID of transaction:
Date:
Transaction type:
Area all (m2):
Forest land (m2)
Selling price (euro):
Unit price (e/m2):
Use:
Plan type:
Building right (m2):
Shore:
Buildings:
Coordinates:
Seller:
Buyer:
L2007-162609
26.8.2007
Deal
2050
2050
110000
5,37
Holiday home
Shore plan area
120
Lake shore
no buildings
x(p)= 7014639.743 y(i)=
3518781.558
Private
Private (2)
Unit type:
Real property ID:
Municipality:
Real property unit
402-403-6-41
Lapinlahti
Real estate price data accessibility in
Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey
Data matrix
One-family house building lot
in Hämeenlinna
Number Month Year
1
1 1995
2
2 1995
3
2 1995
4
2 1995
5
3 1995
6
4 1995
7
4 1995
8
5 1995
9
6 1995
10
8 1995
11
8 1995
12
10 1995
13
11 1995
14
3 1996
15
3 1996
Price
Price
FIM
FIM/m2
130000 107,00
70000
80,83
137000 117,40
330000
52,57
111930
70,00
135000 176,47
288300
60,00
145516
92,33
138000 169,95
150000 136,99
32000
45,71
60000
36,43
65225
27,51
186000 198,93
41000
28,02
Plan
City plan
City plan
City plan
City plan
City plan
City plan
City plan
City plan
City plan
City plan
No plan
City plan
City plan
City plan
City plan
Seller
Xkoord
Private
676750
Private
676530
Private
676320
Private
676164
Private
676738
Private
676658
Private
676170
City
676714
Private
676338
Private
676476
Private
676228
Company 676656
Private
676180
City
676460
Private
676190
YKoord Area m2
252747
1215
252356
866
252537
1167
252572
6277
252881
1599
252629
765
252572
4805
252618
1576
252514
812
252414
1095
252392
700
252697
1647
252580
2371
252430
935
252958
1463
Real estate price data accessibility in
Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey
Distance Distance
to city
to
centre
Helsinki
2,7
97,2
2,0
96,2
2,5
93,6
4,1
92,0
3,7
96,7
1,2
96,6
4,1
92,1
1,6
97,2
2,4
93,9
1,6
95,5
3,8
93,2
1,7
96,4
4,0
92,2
1,6
95,3
5,6
91,2
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
EXAMPLE OF THE PROCESSED DATA
Monthly price of single-family house
Helsinki area
Cost–of-living index
Other Finland
Real estate price data accessibility in
Year
Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey
PROS AND CONS
•
•
•
•
•
 Does not cover flat sales
Flat are not ”real estate” in Finland
 Poor information on buildings
 Poor information on plans
Whole country in one register
Easy to use by the Internet
Query terms freely selectable
Over 1 500 000 deals
– price trends
– price factors
Cheap to use
+
-
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 50-75 % 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:
http://asuntojen.hintatiedot.fi/
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:
http://www.asuntojenvuokrat.fi/pages/default.aspx
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 30.000 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.
http://www.kti.fi/en.php
http://www.catella.fi/frameset_IE.htm
http://newsec.fi/en-fi/
http://www.realiagroup.fi/
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:
http://kuluttaja.etuovi.com/
www.oikotie.fi
www.jokakoti.fi
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
website
Etuovi
Oikotie
(approximate name of the
website in english)
"Main
entrance"
"Every
"Short cut" home"
homes for sale
homes for rent
new homes for sale
rural second homes for sale
business property for sale
business property for rent
lots for sale
farms for sale
garage, storage for sale
67185
6196
16429
6581
6154
623
42289
4885
13973
5412
11385
4619
266
3391
Jokakoti
Hitaskoti
48546
3268
43
5101
1669
1105
4568
271
Real
Alma
Sanoma
Estate
Media
service provided by
Company Company Brokers
Real estate price data accessibility in
Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey
City of
Helsinki
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
http://www.stat.fi/til/asu_en.html
Index examples:
Monthly indices, see
http://www.stat.fi/til/ashi/2013/07/ashi_2013_07_2013-08-30_tie_001_en.html
Rents, see
http://www.stat.fi/til/asvu/2013/02/asvu_2013_02_2013-08-02_tie_001_en.html
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:
http://193.166.171.75/Dialog/varval.asp?ma=003_ashi_tau_108&ti=Indic
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.
http://www.oravaasuntorahasto.fi/AuditOfValuationMo
del2012.pdf
Real estate price data accessibility in
Finland, Risto Peltola, National Land Survey
Other prices indices
National Land Surveys calculates a semiannual index of residential lots,
see:
http://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/en/tiedotte
et/2012/03/real-estate-sales-2011economic-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