National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT)

Directorate for Business Statistics (DCSE)
Division for short-term business statistics (SED)

Via Tuscolana, 1788 - 00173 Rome Italy

Quarterly indicators of building permits.

From December 2003 until April 2021, "Quick survey on building permits" was a quarterly sample survey. Starting from June 2021, data were collected for all units of target population, so now the survey on building permits is a census. It collects information on new residential or non-residential building projects (even if demolished and entirely rebuilt) or enlargement of pre-existing buildings, with the exception of transformations and renovations (conversions of non-residential buildings into residential buildings are not collected). Information is provided by municipalities or by those asking for building permits or other qualifying titles to build and is collected by municipalities that monthly validate on line questionnaires to make them available to Istat. A building permit is an authorisation to start to work on a building project. As such, a permit is the final stage of planning and building authorisations, prior to the start of work. Hence, the building permit indices are a good estimation for the future development and trends in construction. It may be the case that a proportion of permits are not used or there is a long time lag between permits and the start of the building project; however, an index based on these permits gives good indications of the workload for building in the near future. Data disseminated refer to number of dwelling and square meters of useful floor area, communities and non-residential activities. Building permits indicator is one of the PEEIs (Principal European Economic Indicators).

Classification of Types of construction (CC).

The coverage is based on the Classification of types of construction (CC) and covers Section 1 (buildings).

List and definition of variables:

1) Number of new dwellings (total, in one and in two or more dwellings residential buildings).

2) Square meters of useful floor area of new dwellings (total, in one and in two or more dwellings residential buildings).

3) Square meters of residencies for communities (new buildings and enlargement of preexisting buildings, until the third quarter of 2021; only new buildings, starting from the fourth of 2021 provisional).

4) Square meters of non-residential activities (total, in office buildings and in other non-residential activities) (new buildings and enlargement of preexisting buildings, until the third quarter of 2021; only new buildings, starting from the fourth of 2021 provisional).

Square meters of total area collected for residencies for communities and non-residential activities can be considered a good estimation of the square meters of useful floor area.

Reporting unit information is provided by the building permits (or by other qualifying title to build) applicant or, failing that, by the municipality. They have to fill two on-line questionnaires: ISTAT/PDC/RE and ISTAT/PDC/NRE.

Every month, municipal offices must check the accuracy of the information reported in the questionnaires; therefore, they fill in the space of the form reserved for office use and validate the on line questionnaires, to make them available to Istat. When no permits or other qualifying title to build are issued in the reference month, the municipality shall send a notice of no building activity (ISTAT/PDC/NEG form).

Observation units are the residential and non-residential building projects that have been authorized.

For residential: new building projects authorized by a certified permit or other title to build (for residential).

For communities and non-residential: new building projects and enlargement of pre-existing buildings authorized by a certified permit or other title to build until the third quarter of 2021; only new building projects, starting from the fourth of 2021 provisional).

The average number is about 27000 for 2021.

Italy - The whole national territory

Data are available since 2000. Questionnaire was last revised in 2010.

Not applicable ¿ building permits data are expressed in absolute values.

Legal basis:

National level:

This is one of the compulsory surveys administered as part of the National Statistical Programme (current edition: NSP 2017-2019 - Updating 2019) approved with Decree of the President of the Republic of 25 November 2020, published in Ordinary Supplement No. 8 of the Official Journal - general series - no. 35 of 11 February 2021.

Presidential Decree n. 380/2001 and subsequent amendments.

European level:

Regulation (EU) of the European Parliament and of the Council No. 2019/2152 regarding European business statistics and

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No. 2020/1197 laying down technical specifications and arrangements pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2019/2152.

No other transmissions to international organizations except Eurostat.

Survey elementary data are treated as confidential. Aggregated data are disseminated in https://www.istat.it.

Data transmitted to Eurostat refer to 10 variables, but only 3 of them are disseminated at national level. Starting from the provisional third quarter 2021, all 10 variables are sent without confidential flags; they are embargoed until the national dissemination.

Every year, in December, Istat publishes a release calendar providing the precise release dates for the coming year. The calendar is distributed to the press and is available free of charge to interested parties.

The release calendar is disseminated on ISTAT¿s website: Press release calendar.

Data are also transmitted to Eurostat in according to the Release calendar for euro indicators.

Data are released simultaneously to all interested parties by issuing the press release ¿Buildings permits indicators¿ on Istat¿s website.

There is no pre-release access.

Data are also sent to Eurostat according to required standards by EDAMIS4 using SDMX format.

Starting from provisional third quarter 2021, Eurostat receives embargoed data until national press release and all data (10 variables) are without confidentiality flag. 7 variables are not disseminated nationally, because they are not considered significant for the national press release.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat no later than 90 days after the end of the reference quarter.

Quarterly.

"Building permits indicators¿ is a quarterly press release with graphs and tables that ease the data analysis; a short text explains recent evolution for the phenomenon. It includes information on methodological aspects through a ¿Methodological note¿, attached to the press release. Data series are disseminated since 2000 in seasonally adjusted form (with quarter on previous quarter percentage changes) and in non-adjusted form (with quarter on same quarter a year ago percentage changes).

They are available on Istat¿s website: Building permits indicators.

Before data dissemination, validated microdata are stored in an ISTAT database called ARMIDA (Archive of validated microdata).
This repository also collects other useful information (such as metadata and classifications) for the correct interpretation of the data. It was established with the main objective of preserving and documenting the data produced by all internal Istat surveys and has subsequently supported the objective of disseminating data. The data archived in ARMIDA supplies, in fact, the different channels for the dissemination of microdata (through the ¿Access Protocol of microdata of ARMIDA¿ for internal users, Adele¿s laboratory and authorities in Sistan and through an external environment for research files, for standard files, etc.).
Microdata are also stored in an internal Oracle database.

Starting from the provisional third quarter 2021, data are sent to Eurostat embargoed and used for European aggregates; they became free for dissemination at national level once published by Istat.

A description of the methodology and characteristics of the survey is contained in the technical explanatory note attached to the quarterly press release updated regularly. Starting from the provisional first quarter 2021, also the quarterly data refer to the whole population of Italian municipalities. Moreover, changes in the methodology regarding non-response imputation were introduced. Data methodology and sources of the index are described in ¿Le nuove procedure di imputazione della mancata risposta nelle indagini sui Permessi di Costruire¿ di Francesca Tuzi e Alessandra Leo, Dec. 2020.

The overall quality assessment can be considered satisfactory, as there is a compliance between the production process and Istat quality guidelines. Indicators are relevant with regard to users¿s information needs, they are accurate and easily accessible and supported by metadata allowing for a perfect understanding of the data, they allows comparisons over time and respect the timing.

A set of standard quality indicators is regularly analyzed and shows the following indicators: coverage and unit non-response (since 2008), editing and imputation (since 2007), timeliness and punctuality (since 2003), resources (since 2005). They are available on Siqual (Information System on Quality), with graphs and tables that ease the analysis: Siqual - Information System on Quality - Quick survey on building permits.

Main users of indicators of building permits are:

- Institutions: government departments, ECB, national central bank, international organisations, etc.
- Social actors: employers' organisations, trade unions, lobby groups, etc.
- Media
- Researchers & students
- Enterprises/businesses
- Internal users
- Eurostat

Users mainly manage these data for studying evolution and planning policies at national or local level.

Not available.

Eurostat's requirements in terms of time series are fulfilled.

Quarterly estimates of construction permits, regarding a set of 10 variables, are transmitted to Eurostat 90 days past the end of the reference quarter; then they are revised 180 days past the reference period.

The national quarterly press release, which contains only 3 of the 10 variables sent to Eurostat, is published 110 days after the end of the reference period; data are provisional in the first release, then they are revised and become final when the structural survey data are disseminated (on average 7 months after the reference period).

Questionnaires start to be filled in during the reference period, the data collection ends one month after.

European and national releases on time.

Data are comparable from year 2000.

Comparisons with index of production in construction: trends are consistent and differences are explained by weight of this survey that accounts for about 40% of total data in the construction sector.

Variables V411 and V412 are coherent for common types of buildings.

The cost estimate is compiled in terms of total number of hours worked (THW). It is equal to the product of three terms: (total) Annual Working Days (AWD), (total) Hours Worked per Day (HWD), Number of Persons involved in the Survey (NPS).

The burden estimate is compiled in terms of total number of minutes (TNM) taken to fill in the questionnaire. The respondents need about 15 minutes to fill the questionnaire, while municipalities need about 2-3 minutes to validate and send it.

 The assessment of these costs and burdens covers the statistics for both STS and national requirements.

Data revision is composed by 2 steps (with the exception of the fourth quarter):

- a first revision is carried out after 90 days from the first release, taking into account new data arrived after the first estimate;

- a second revision will be carried out in June in the year t+1 of the first estimate release when data of the yearly survey on building permits are available.

For the fourth quarter, revision after 90 days coincides with the structural survey data dissemination, so it is revised once.

No revisions are carried out to take into account building permits revoked.

A table called "Revisions of growth rate" is included in the press release ¿Building permits indicators¿ when the yearly survey is concluded and it contains differences with previous data disseminated. A methodological note contains further information on revision policy, criteria, and periodicity.

The Mean Revision (MR), the Main Absolute Revision (MAR), the Relative Mean Absolute Revision (RMAR%) and the Max Absolute Revision (MaxAR) are compiled for these variables on quarter on same quarter a year ago percentage changes, calculated on unadjusted data, from first quarter 2016 to third quarter 2021.

Same indicators are compiled for these variables on quarter on previous quarter percentage changes, calculated on seasonally adjusted data, from first quarter 2016 to third quarter 2021.

For 2021, these indicators may be high, due to data revised for methodological innovations.

Data are collected through a statistical survey by:

1)  Natural or legal person applying for a building permit or other qualifying title to build;

2)  Authority issuing the authorization to build (municipalities).

Starting from June 2021, survey is a census.

Monthly

Data are collected through the website https://indata.istat.it/pdc. Respondents need to login for insert data in the web questionnaire.
Questionnaires used in the survey are: ISTAT/PDC/RE form (for residential buildings) and ISTAT/PDC/NRE form (for non-residential buildings). Every month municipal offices must check the accuracy of the information reported in the questionnaires; therefore, they fill in the space of the form reserved for office use and transmit data to Istat on a monthly basis. When no building permits or other qualifying title to build are issued in the reference month, the municipalities shall send a notice of no building activity with the ISTAT/PDC/NEG form. The deadline for municipalities¿ responses is 30 days after the reference month. Late responses are taken into account in the revision process. If either data or notice on building activity are not reported, the municipality is considered as a non-respondent.
For reducing late transmission and increase response rate a set of actions are applied, e.g. email reminders, deadline notices, telephone contacts, penalties for non - respondent municipalities. Each worker periodically monitors and follows up the non-response, through informatics procedures.

Data validation is applied following three type of rules:
Validation level 0: format and file structure checks;
Validation level 1: intra-dataset checks based at record and cell level;
Validation level 2: revision checks and time series checks (coherence control with previous data of the same survey).

Starting from June 2021 also the quarterly data will refer to the whole population of Italian municipalities. Moreover, changes in the methodology regarding non-response imputation were introduced. Revision process had two main targets: reducing the differences between the imputation method used in the structural survey and the method used in the rapid survey; aligning the imputation methods regarding provinces or municipalities with a population above 50.000 (large municipalities) with all the others (small municipalities), exploiting the longitudinal information deriving from the municipality itself.

Non-response imputation methods are simplified, using when possible longitudinal information from the same municipality. Furthermore different imputation methods are now used for the residential and non-residential sector. If no longitudinal information are available, missing data are imputed using the mean growth rate of the stratum.

In the formula below, we have y_it as the value of the observed variable for the municipality i in the month t, y_it-12 and y_it-1 are the values at time t-12 and t-1, and we have r_it-12and r_it-1equal to 1 if y_it-12 and y_it-1 are observed, otherwise they are equal to 0. If y_it is missing and at last four monthly responses are available for the period [t-12, t-1], its value will be imputated based upon the mean of observed values in this period, as follows:

For non-residential sector, extreme values are removed from the series.

If there is not enough information from a longitudinal perspective, missing data are imputed using the mean of the stratum:

Where y_jt is the observed value of the jth respondent unit at the time t and obs is the total respondents of the stratum. The strata are formed according to the demographic size class of the municipality and to geographical basis, total amount of strata is equal to 30: five geographic divisions and six classes of population; the last population class (selft-representative units AR) also includes all provincial capitals. Here in after the % composition of strata:

-          11 North-West and population up to 3,000 inhabitans (24.7%);

-          12 North-West and population from 3,001 to 7,000 inhabitans (7.4%)

-          13 North-West and population from 7,001 to 13,000 inhabitans (3.2%);

-          14 North-West and population from 13,001 to 25,000 inhabitans (1.5%);

-          15 North-West and population from 25,001 to 49,999 inhabitans (0.6%);

-          16 North-West and population more than 49,9999 inhabitans + AR (0.4%);

-          21 North-East and population up to 3,000 inhabitans (7.4%);

-          22 North-East and population from 3,001 to 7,000 inhabitans (5.0%);

-          23 North-East and population from 7,001 to 13,000 inhabitans (3.0%);

-          24 North-East and population from 13,001 to 25,000 inhabitans (1.4%);

-          25 North-East and population from 25,001 to 49,999 inhabitans (0.5%);

-          26 North-East and population more than 49,9999 inhabitans + AR (0.3%);

-          31 Centre and population up to 3,000 inhabitans (5.8%);

-          32 Centre and population from 3,001 to 7,000 inhabitans (2.7%);

-          33 Centre and population from 7,001 to 13,000 inhabitans (1.6%);

-          34 Centre and population from 13,001 to 25,000 inhabitans (1.2%);

-          35 Centre and population from 25,001 to 49,999 inhabitans (0.5%);

-          36 Centre and population more than 49,9999 inhabitans + AR (0.4%);

-          41 South and population up to 3,000 inhabitans (12.8%);

-          42 South and population from 3,001 to 7,000 inhabitans (4.6%);

-          43 South and population from 7,001 to 13,000 inhabitans (2.1%);

-          44 South and population from 13,001 to 25,000 inhabitans (1.7%);

-          45 South and population from 25,001 to 49,999 inhabitans (0.8%);

-          46 South and population more than 49,9999 inhabitans + AR (0.6%);

-          51 South and population up to 3,000 inhabitans (5.3%);

-          52 South and population from 3,001 to 7,000 inhabitans (2.0%);

-          53 South and population from 7,001 to 13,000 inhabitans (1.2%);

-          54 South and population from 13,001 to 25,000 inhabitans (0.5%);

-          55 South and population from 25,001 to 49,999 inhabitans (0.4%);

-          56 South and population more than 49,9999 inhabitans + AR (0.4%).

Indicators sent to Eurostat are absolute figures.

There are no relevant Method of weighting and chaining.

Data are released in an unadjusted, in a seasonally and calendar adjusted form.

Raw data are corrected for seasonal effects by TRAMO-SEATS procedure, 4 Version Linux Revision 942. Starting from December 2021, seasonal adjustment also includes square meters for communities (CC113) and for office buildings (CC122), so all ten series are seasonally adjusted. Since the addition of new quarterly information allows a better evaluation of the different components of the series, each quarter parameters are re-estimated and seasonally adjusted series are revised from the first quarter of 2000.

The statistical models used for the seasonal adjustments are periodically revised to ensure a good fitting to the time series.

A Reg-Arima approach is used for seasonal adjustment.

Moreover, starting from September 2021, calendar adjusted series for 8 variables (except square meters for communities and for office buildings) are sent to Eurostat; from December 2021, all 10 series are sent in a calendar adjusted form. However, no significant calendar effect is found for all series, but it is always checked when adjustment model are completely reviewed. 

Outliers (additive outliers, temporary changes, level shift, seasonal outliers) are manually fixed when seasonal adjustment models are revised. The filter length is automatically chosen as normally happens, when diagnostics on residuals are good, with the critical values for the outlier detection. Each series of the data set follows a log-additive decomposition model and is directly adjusted.

None