ISTAT - Istituto Nazionale di Statistica
Euro-SDMX Metadata Structure Definition (ESMS_MSD 3.0 ESTAT)
Building permits
2018 - A0
1. Contact
1.1 Contact organisation
National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT)
1.2 Contact organisation unit

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

1.3 Contact name
Alessandra Leo

1.4 Contact person function
Survey manager
1.5 Contact mail address
Via Tuscolana, 1788 - 00173 Rome Italy
1.6 Contact email address
leo@istat.it

1.7 Contact phone number
+390646736190

1.8 Contact fax number
2. Metadata update
2.1 Metadata last certified
2.2 Metadata last posted
2.3 Metadata last update
3. Statistical presentation
3.1 Data description

Quarterly indicators of building permits
"Quick Survey on building permits" is a quarterly sample survey; 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. 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 are referred 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).

3.2 Classification system
Classification of Types of construction (CC)
3.3 Coverage - sector
The coverage is based on the Classification of types of construction (CC) and covers Section 1 (buildings).
3.4 Statistical concepts and definitions

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)
4) Square meters of non residential activities (total, in office buildings and in other non residential activities) (new buildings and enlargement of preexisting buildings)
Definition of variables is consistent with the European Commission Regulation No 1503/2006.
The target variable is measured as a flow during the calendar quarter.

3.5 Statistical unit

Reporting unit information is provided by municipalities or by those who asking for building permits or other qualifying titles to build; they fulfill an on line questionnaire. Municipalities monthly validate on line questionnaires to make them available to Istat.
The observation unit(s) are the residential and non residential building projects that have been authorized.

3.6 Statistical population
New building projects  for residential; New building projects  and enlargement of pre-existing buildings (for communities and non-residential). The average number is about 15000 per year.
3.7 Reference area
Italy - The whole national territory
3.8 Coverage - Time
Data are available since 2000. Questionnaire was last revised in 2010.
3.9 Base period
Not applicable – building permits data are expressed in absolute values.
4. Unit of measure
The quantity of the residential buildings is measured in cubic meters of volume and square meters, dwellings in habitable floor area, that of non-residential buildings in square meters of area (absolute figures).
5. Reference Period
Data collection and production process are both montly, while indicators and data dissemination, to Eurostat and at national level, are quarterly.
6. Institutional Mandate
6.1 Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements

Legal basis:

National level:

This is one of the compulsory surveys fixed every year by a Decree of the President of the Republic (D.P.R.);

Legislative Decree n. 301/2002 (Building permits and DIA);

Law 122/2010 (SCIA);

Presidential Decree n. 380/2001 and subsequent amendments.

European level:

Council Regulation (EC) No 1165/1998 introducing short-term statistics at European level;

Regulation (EC) of the European Parliament and of the Council No 1158/2005 amending Regulation 1165/98 and introducing the European sample schemes, industrial import prices, output prices for services and other changes.

Commission Regulation No 1503/2006 defining variables and frequency of data compilation, repealing new orders received for building construction and new orders received for civil engineering

Commission Regulation No 472/2008 introducing the new base year 2005 and the statistical classification of economic activities, NACE Rev. 2, into short-term statistics. 
6.2 Institutional Mandate - data sharing
No other transmissions to international organisations except Eurostat.
7. Confidentiality
7.1 Confidentiality - policy

Several national legal acts guarantee the confidentiality of data requested for statistical purposes. According to art. 9, paragraph 1 of the Legislative Decree n. 322 of 1989, personal data can only be disseminated in aggregate form, in order to make it impossible to identify individuals. The Personal Data Protection Code – introduced by the Legislative Decree no. 196 of 30 June 2003 – provides special rules concerning the processing of personal data for statistical purposes within the National Statistical System (Sistan). Further, in order to make statistical secrecy and protection of personal data effective, Istat is currently taking appropriate organisational, logistical, methodological and statistical measures in accordance with internationally established standards.

Links to different legal acts on statistics are presented on the website of Sistan - National Statistical System - (http://www.sistan.it/index.php?id=203).
7.2 Confidentiality - data treatment

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; so 7 variables are sent to Eurostat by using confidential flags.
8. Release policy
8.1 Release calendar
Data are only transmitted to Eurostat in according to the Release calendar for euro indicators and disseminated nationally without a predefined release calendar.
8.2 Release calendar access
8.3 Release policy - user access

Data are released simultaneously to all interested parties by issuing the press release "Indicatori dei permessi di costruire" (“Buildings permits indicators”).
There is no pre-release access.
Data are transmitted to Eurostat no later than 90 days after the end of the reference quarter. Data sent to Eurostat according to required standards by EDAMIS using SDMX format. Eurostat receives embargoed data in advance of national publishing date.

9. Frequency of dissemination
Quarterly.
10. Accessibility and clarity
10.1 Dissemination format - News release

"Indicatori dei permessi di costruire" (Building permits indicators) is a quarterly press release, it includes data and a technical explanatory note. In this document, graphs and tables ease the data analysis. A short text explains recent evolution for the phenomenon. They are available on ISTA’S website: Indicatori dei permessi di costruire and Building permits indicators.

10.2 Dissemination format - Publications

Data are made available to the public through yearly publication “Annuario Statistico Italiano” (ASI) -Italian Statistical Yearbook; it shows graphs and tables of quarterly indicators relating to the total number and square meters of useful floor area of dwelling in new residential buildings and total square meters of new non residential activities. Annuario Statistico Italiano 2018.

"Noi Italia - 100 statistics to understand the country we live in" includes an indicator for building permits at regional and national level, with international comparisons. Noi Italia.
10.3 Dissemination format - online database

Data are disseminated in I.Stat  database (I.Stat), theme “Industry and Construction”, sub-theme “Building permit indicators” data-set “New residential building” and “New non-residential construction”.
The on-line database I.Stat is open and free, statistics are organised by theme in a two-level hierarchical tree. Data are presented in aggregate form in multidimensional tables; acting on variables, reference periods and the arrangement of heads and sides users can create custom tables and graphs. The system can be searched by keyword, theme and region. 
A wide range of standard metadata facilitates the retrieval and understanding of statistics by users.
More information available in the User Guide 
User Guide

10.4 Dissemination format - microdata access

Before data dissemination, validated microdata are stored in an ISTAT database called ARMIDA which collects, for all internal surveys, microdata and other useful information (such as metadata and classifications) for the correct interpretation of the data.
Microdata are also stored in internal Oracle database. 

10.5 Dissemination format - other
Data are sent to Eurostat as confidential and used for European aggregates, part of them become free for dissemination at national level once published by Istat, the rest of data continue to be confidential.
10.6 Documentation on methodology

A short description of the methodology and characteristics of the survey is contained in the technical explanatory note attached to the press release updated regularly.
Methodology and sources of the index are described in “Estimates based on preliminary data from a specific sub-sample and from respondents not included in the subsample”, (Falorsi, Alleva, Bacchini and Iannacone) Statistical methods and applications, Vol.14, n.1, Springer-Verlag, Feb. 2005.
A description of methodology and sources used in preparing statistics is also contained in the Information System for Survey Documentation and Quality Control (Siqual); it is available on ISTAT's Internet website http://siqual.istat.it/SIQual/index.jsp. This system manages qualitative information related to each single phase of a survey's production process (http://siqual.istat.it/SIQual/lang.do?language=UK)

10.7 Quality management - documentation

More information about procedures applied for quality management and quality assessment is contained in the document "Quality Guidelines For Statistical Processes" - December 2012
https://www.istat.it/it/files//2013/04/Linee-Guida-v1.1-Versione-inglese.pdf

11. Quality management
11.1 Quality assurance

Istat quality policy is coherent with the European Statistics Code of Practice adopted in 2005 (and revised in 2011) and available at the link http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/quality/european-statistics-code-of-practice, with Eurostat Quality Definition and with the recommendations of the LEG on Quality. Following the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice, Italy has adopted the Italian Code of Official Statistics in order to promote quality improvements of the statistics produced by the Italian National Statistical System. Essential points of Istat quality policy are: process and product quality, documentation, respect for respondents, strengthening of statistical literacy and users’ orientation. For more details:https://www.istat.it/en/organisation-and-activity/institutional-activities/quality-commitment.
Quality assurance for this survey, in the framework of the quality policy of Istat, is based on the implementation of various activities, such as
1)   Prevention and monitoring of non-respondent, initiatives to foster survey participation and follow-ups of non-respondent units, penalties for non-respondent municipalities (see point 13.3);
2)   Checking of every paper questionnaire before data entry and submission of on-line questionnaires to some variable compatibility checks; checking of few fields during data entry;
3)   Quality control action based on fully deterministic and mixed procedures for the treatment of deterministic error and outlier detection and imputation; the first procedure is based on deterministic modelling, the second (BANFF procedure) is carried out by clerical reviewers and is based on data from previous editions of the same survey;
4)   Coherence control with previous data of the same survey;
5)   Elaboration of a set of standard quality indicators.

11.2 Quality management - assessment

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 are regularly analysed and shows the following indicators: coverage and unit nonresponse (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.

In 2014, this survey was submitted to an audit on quality in a testing phase.

Audit on quality

Siqual - Information System on Quality ([S] - Quick survey on building permits)
12. Relevance
12.1 Relevance - User Needs

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
12.2 Relevance - User Satisfaction
Not available.
12.3 Completeness
Eurostat's requirements in terms of time series are fulfilled (some data are flagged as confidential).
13. Accuracy
13.1 Accuracy - overall
All the measures useful to reduce sampling and non sampling errors are implemented, so the overall accuracy of the index can be considered good. Moreover, between the first and the final release there is an average lag of 11 months; these indicators normally show a similar trend. 
13.2 Sampling error
In 2013, size sample was modified: from 814 to 1034 units on a total of 7960 municipalities; outlier treatment and adjustments for non-response are included, but an assessment of sampling errors is not available.
13.3 Non-sampling error
Non sampling errors are reduced by applying a set of actions. In the collection phase, for reducing late transmission and increase response rate, postal reminders, email, telephone contact are used; for municipalities that do not comply for the year 2018, it will be applied a financial penalty, in according with the Legislative Decree n. 322/1989 (articles 7 and 11); paper questionnaires are checked before data entry. Moreover the on-line procedure used since july 2010 helps aiming at an increase of the response rate and debugging through a compatibility check on some main variables. Other actions are based on checking procedures of few single fields during data entry and automated error checking procedures after data entry. Response rate is around 84% at the time of the first release to Eurostat and around 90% at the second release (response rates weighted by populations).

14. Timeliness and punctuality
14.1 Timeliness

The press release is published on average 180 days after the end of the reference period; data are transmitted to Eurostat within 90 days using the confidential clause; data are provisional in the first release, then they are revised and become final in average 11 months after the reference period.

Questionnaires start to be filled in during the reference period, the data collection ends one month after (for on-line questionnaires) and two months after the end of the reference period (for paper ones).

14.2 Punctuality
On time releases to Eurostat within 90 days as required. For national dissemination only an internal calendar is fixed.
15. Coherence and comparability
15.1 Comparability - geographical

Data are disseminated at national level complying with the European definitions (CR 1503/2006); the whole national territory is covered by the same definitions and methods.
Annual data on dwellings and square meters of useful floor in new residential buildings per 1,000 households are available by NUTS 2 regions in the online pubblication "Noi Italia - 100 statistics to understand the country we live in". 

Noi Italia

15.2 Comparability - over time
Data are comparable from year 2000.
15.3 Coherence - cross domain
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.
15.4 Coherence - internal
Variables V411 and V412 are coherent for common types of buildings.
16. Cost and Burden

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).

AWD

HWD

NPS

Cost estimate (THW)

220

7.12

9.3

14,568

 

There are also data entry costs that are related only to paper questionnaires, used by municipalities that do not use the on-line application.

 

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. 

 Type of Respondent

Burden estimate (TNM)

Respondent (to fill)

About 15 min.

Municipalities (to validate and to send)

About 2-3 minutes.

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

17. Data revision
17.1 Data revision - policy
Revision policy is carried out to consider late incoming data and benchmarking procedures (see point 17.2); a revision calendar is prepared, but only for internal staff. Revisions include seasonal adjustment. Transparency of disseminated data is ensured: major changes in methodology and in others survey features are infrequent but are promptly disseminated in methodological notes attached to data releases or through letters sent to municipalities. Errors are rare but, if occurred, they are promptly corrected: in order to inform users, correct results are disseminated both to Eurostat and on the Istat website. There is an internal database where vintage data are stocked. The same revision policy is applied to data released nationally and transmitted to Eurostat.
17.2 Data revision - practice

Data revision is composed by 3 steps:

- 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 is carried out in September in the year following the release of the first estimate as a result of a benchmarking procedure based on percentage changes;

- a third revision is carried out in September in the year t+2 of the release of the first estimate as a result of a benchmarking procedure which takes into account data of the yearly survey on building permits.

No revisions are carried out to take into account building permits revoked. A paragraph called "Revisioni" is included in the press release “Indicatori dei permessi di costruire” of each July and it contains differences with previous data disseminated. A methodological note contains further information on revision policy, criteria, 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 year-on-year growth rates calculated on unadjusted data, from first quarter 2016.

 

MR

MAR

RMAR%

MaxAR

Number of new dwellings

2,000

2,725

30,6

7,8

Square meters of useful floor area of new dwellings

1,850

2,550

25,8

5,6

Square meters of non residential activities

2,388

2,388

16,4

4,1

Same indicators are compiled for these variables on quarter-on-quarter growth rates calculated on seasonally adjusted data, from first quarter 2016.

 

MR

MAR

RMAR%

MaxAR

Number of new dwellings

1,875

2,275

63,4

7,1

Square meters of useful floor area of new dwellings

1,475

2,000

75,8

4,6

Square meters of non residential activities

2,025

2,025

21,7

4,6

 

 

18. Statistical processing
18.1 Source data

Type of source:
1)  Natural or legal person applying for a building permit or other qualifying title to build;
2)  Authority issuing the authorization to build (municipalities).
Survey is based on a sample. At the same time, a census survey is carried out also to in order to estimate the grossing-up to population level.
The methodology is based on a two-phase sample and on the hypothesis that the response mechanism is the result of a random processes whose parameters can be suitably estimated. Sample includes 176 self representative units, composed by all municipalities with more than 50.000 inhabitants and all “Capoluogo" municipalities; the 858 remaining municipalities are stratified and selected by a random process.
For stratification there are 4 Geographical areas (North-west, North-east, Centre, South-and-Islands) and Socio-demographic characteristics of Municipalities.
The Frequency of updating the sample is 10 years.

18.2 Frequency of data collection
Monthly
18.3 Data collection

The questionnaires used in the survey are separated for residential (Mod. ISTAT/PDC/RE) and non-residential (Mod. ISTAT/PDC/NRE) building. Communication of no building permits in the period from the municipalities is the Mod. ISTAT/PDC/NEG. The deadline for responses is about the end of the month after the reference month. Late responses are taken into account in the revision process.

Respondents fill an online questionnaire; then, municipalities monthly validate them so they became available to Istat. If a municipality do not use the on-line application, respodents fill the paper questionnaire attached to the request of building permits and then municipalities collect and send them to ISTAT by post or by email. For reducing late transmission and increase response rate a set of actions are applied, e.g. postal reminders, email and telephone contacts, penalties for non - respondent municipalities. Each worker periodically monitors and follows up the non response, through informatic procedures.
18.4 Data validation

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).

18.5 Data compilation

Estimates for non-response: For 176 self representative municipalities, in case of PMR (Partial Missing Response) missing values are estimated through the average value available for the same municipality in the 12 previous months; in case of TMR (Total Missing Response) a minimum distance estimation model is used.
Estimates for grossing-up to population levels: For remaining 858 sample municipalities, missing values are estimated through a re-ponderation model based on values monthly availables for respondent units. Moreover, since at the time of the estimation assessment sample coverage is incomplete, additional information from responding non-sample municipalities is used.
Indicators sent to Eurostat are absolute figures.
There are no relevant Method of weighting and chaining. 

18.6 Adjustment

Raw data are corrected for seasonal effects by TRAMO-SEATS procedure, version 942 of 2017 for Linux. Seasonal adjustment series are estimated for all ten series except for residencies for communities (CC113) and for office building (CC122). Adjustment models are completely reviewed once a year, with the release of data referred to the second quarter of the year and in conjunction with the application of the procedure, based on benchmarking and balancing techniques, that makes the quarterly series consistent with those coming from the annual structural survey on building permits. Each quarter, parameters are re-estimated and seasonally adjusted series are revised from the first quarter of 2000.
A Reg-Arima approach is used for seasonal adjustment. No calendar adjustment is performed since no significant effect is found for all series. However, the significance of calendar effects is 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.

19. Comment
None