ISTAT - Istituto Nazionale di Statistica
Euro-SDMX Metadata Structure Definition (ESMS_MSD 3.0 ESTAT)
Building permits
2020 - 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
Survey manager: Alessandra Leo

Contact for quality reporting: Barbara Parise  
1.4 Contact person function
Survey manager: Alessandra Leo
1.5 Contact mail address
Via Tuscolana, 1788 - 00173 Rome Italy
1.6 Contact email address
leo@istat.it

parise@istat.it

1.7 Contact phone number
Alessandra Leo: +390646736190

Barbara Parise: +390646736359
1.8 Contact fax number
Not available
2. Metadata update
2.1 Metadata last certified
27/05/2020
2.2 Metadata last posted
18/09/2020
2.3 Metadata last update
05/08/2020
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 (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).

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).
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.

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

3.6 Statistical population
New building projects authorized by a certified permit or other title to build (for residential).
New building projects and enlargement of pre-existing buildings authorized by a certified permit or other title to build (for communities and non-residential).
The average number is about 13000 for 2020.
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
Residential buildings are measured in number of dwellings and in square meters of useful floor area. Non-residential buildings are measured in  square meters of floor 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. Building permits are assigned to the month when they are granted; other titles to build are assigned to the month when they become effective.
6. Institutional Mandate
6.1 Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements

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 the Official Journal - general series - no. 35 of 11 February 2021.
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
Confidentiality provisions are explicitly stated in the Istat President’s letter sent every year by email to all municipalities along with references to different acts on statistics.
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 Sistan’s website - National Statistical System - Sistan - Normativa della statistica ufficiale.
7.2 Confidentiality - data treatment

Survey elementary data are treated as confidential. Aggregated data are disseminated in https://www.istat.it/en/.
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
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.
8.2 Release calendar access

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.

8.3 Release policy - user access

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.
Eurostat receives embargoed data on provisional indicators because their revisions are considered a bit high: these data will be disseminated nationally from next year. Moreover, Eurostat receives a set of 7 variables with a confidentiality flag: they 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.

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

"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: 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 (seasonally adjusted data). Annuario Statistico Italiano 2020.

"Noi Italia - 100 statistics to understand the country we live in" includes data on dwellings and useful floor area in new residential buildings, per 1000 households at national level, also with regional and European 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 permits indicators” data-set “New residential buildings” 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 and theme.
A wide range of standard metadata facilitates the retrieval and understanding of statistics by users.

More information is available in the User Guide.

 

10.4 Dissemination format - microdata access

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.

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 description of the methodology and characteristics of the survey is contained in the technical explanatory note attached to the quarterly 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.

10.7 Quality management - documentation
Metainformation on the statistical production processes and secondary processes carried out is contained in The Information System on Quality (SIQual). It includes metadata on process content, its operational characteristics (process phases and operations) and the quality considered both in terms of activities of prevention, monitoring and evaluation of errors (quality actions) and in terms of documentation on process and product quality. It is available on Istat's website (http://siqual.istat.it/SIQual/lang.do?language=UK).
More information about procedures applied for quality management and quality assessment is contained in the document "Quality Guidelines For Statistical Processes" - December 2012
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)   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 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.
In 2014, this survey was submitted to an audit on quality in a testing phase: Audit on quality.
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 7 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; in 2019 the merger of the two sample municipalities in a new municipality reduced the sample size to 1033 municipalities; the same thing occured in 2020, so the current sample size consists of 1032 municipalities (on a total of 7904 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, email reminders, deadline notices and telephone contacts are used; for municipalities that do not comply for the year 2020, it will be applied a financial penalty, in according with the Legislative Decree n. 322/1989 (articles 7 and 11). 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 95% at the time of the first release to Eurostat and around 97% at the second release (response rates weighted by populations).
14. Timeliness and punctuality
14.1 Timeliness
Quarterly estimates of construction permits, regarding a set of 10 variables, are transmitted confidentially to Eurostat 90 days past the end of the reference quarter; then they are revised 180 days past the reference period and 3 variables become free.
The national quarterly press release, which contains only 3 of the 10 variables sent to Eurostat, is published 180 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 10 months after the reference period).
Questionnaires start to be filled in during the reference period, the data collection ends one month after.
14.2 Punctuality
European and national releases on time.
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 area 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

8.19

12,829

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 consider late incoming data and benchmarking procedures (see point 17.2); moreover, regular revision analysis are carried out for data sent to Eurostat. 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 will be carried out in June in the year t+1 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 quarter on same quarter a year ago percentage changes, calculated on unadjusted data, from first quarter 2016 to fourth quarter 2020.

 

MR

MAR

RMAR%

MaxAR

Number of new dwellings

2.821

3.648

43.4

12.6

Square meters of useful floor area of new dwellings

2.073

3.213

38.9

8.3

Square meters of non residential activities

1.934

6.330

38.2

20.4

Same indicators are compiled for these variables on quarter on previous quarter percentage changes, calculated on seasonally adjusted data, from first quarter 2016 to fourth quarter 2020.

 

MR

MAR

RMAR%

MaxAR

Number of new dwellings

1.788

2.224

31.0

6.7

Square meters of useful floor area of new dwellings

1.788

3.035

47.4

7.2

Square meters of non residential activities

2.429

3.182

18.7

13.3

 

 

18. Statistical processing
18.1 Source data

Data are collected through a statistical survey from:

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 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 process whose parameters can be suitably estimated. Sample includes 176 self-representative units, composed by all municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants and all provincial capitals; the 856 remaining municipalities (non-self-representing municipalities) are stratified and selected by a random process.
For stratification, 856 municipalities are layered in 20 groups; below the definition of layers and the relative percentages of municipalities in each stratum:

- Four geographic divisions:

    North-West (39.0%);

    North-East (22.5%);

    Centre (12.5%);

    South-and-Islands (26.0%).

- Population grouped in five classes:

    up to 3,000 inhabitants (23.9%);

    from 3,001 to 7,000 (26.0%);

    from 7,001 to 13,000 (23.7%);

    from 13,001 to 25,000 (18.2%);

    more than 25,000 (8.2%).

The Frequency of updating the sample is 10 years.

18.2 Frequency of data collection
Monthly
18.3 Data collection

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.
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.

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

For 176 self-representative municipalities, in case of partial lack of response (PLR), estimates are imputed based on the average value of the variables (dwellings and area) over the course of the previous 12 months in that municipality (if the municipality has responded at least once). In case of total lack of response (TLR), which occurs when the municipality does not respond for 12 consecutive months, missing data are imputed using the method of minimum distance.
With regard to the missing responses of the remaining 856 sample municipalities, data are imputed based on a re-weighting procedure of information received from the responding municipalities. In addition, when making the monthly estimates, as the coverage of the sample may not be complete, it is necessary to use the auxiliary information from the remaining non-sample municipalities that have already responded to the structural survey.
The imputation method currently used, beginning from the aggregated data by municipality, suitably layered by division and population class, estimates the total number of dwellings in new residential buildings and the total non-residential for these municipalities every month, attributing a weight to each variable of the responding municipalities in the reference period.
Indicators sent to Eurostat are absolute figures.
There are no relevant Method of weighting and chaining.

18.6 Adjustment

Data are released in an unadjusted and in a seasonally adjusted form.
Raw data are corrected for seasonal effects by TRAMO-SEATS procedure, 4 Version Linux Revision 942. Seasonal adjustment series are estimated for all ten series except for residencies for communities (CC113) and for office buildings (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.

With reference to the seasonally adjustment procedure used to treat the indicators disseminated, the seasonal adjustment models were reviewed to manage the exceptional decreases recorded taking into consideration the Eurostat guidelines, available at the URL: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/10186/10693286/Time_series_treatment_guidance.pdf.
Therefore, since the second quarter 2020, the unusual size of the changes of the unadjusted time series were taken into account. For this purpose, additional regressors (the so-called additive outliers) were introduced in models for seasonal adjustment when statistically significant. This procedure aims at minimizing the revisions of past values of the seasonally adjusted series. As soon as the available information will allow an overall evaluation of the great volatility phase, models will be revised/modified if necessary. In that case,revisions of seasonally adjusted data may be larger than usual.

19. Comment
None