Further developing Belgian real estate statistics

ongoing

This project aims to significantly enhance Belgium’s capacity to produce high-quality, timely real estate market statistics aligned with Eurostat and European Statistical System (ESS) priorities. It addresses critical areas related to House Price Indices (HPI) and Commercial Real Estate Indicators, supporting broader EU goals of improved statistical timeliness, comparability, and infrastructure. Four complementary work packages are proposed: 1. HPI Flash Estimates: Develop and evaluate experimental Belgian flash HPI estimates at various short-term intervals, balancing timeliness and accuracy. Findings will feed into Eurostat’s harmonization efforts via a dedicated task force. 2. Monthly HPI Frequency: Explore the feasibility of increasing HPI publication frequency from quarterly to monthly, assessing data availability, quality, and stability for primary and secondary housing markets to better capture rapid market changes. 3. Commercial Real Estate Price and Rent Indices (CREPI/CRERI): Prepare Belgium’s operational framework for upcoming EU regulations by building a modern production pipeline in R, compiling harmonized price and rent indices for key market segments using robust hedonic regression models. 4. Transaction Value-Based Weights: Compile annual weights for commercial real estate segments based on transaction values, using administrative data to ensure accurate, representative weighting for future indices. Together, these work packages advance Eurostat’s strategic priorities by delivering timelier, methodologically robust real estate statistics, facilitating compliance with new legislation, and improving Belgian real estate statistics.