Statistical presentation

Data description

These statistics shed light on the turnover of real estate and the associated prices as well as the price development described with a price index. Real estate includes both owner-occupied dwellings as one-family houses, owner-occupied flats and weekend cottages, as well as business properties such as agriculture properties, mixed residential properties and commercial properties and industrial properties and warehouses.

There are two different statements of the number of sales. Firstly, there is the number of sales in the price calculation, which is used for calculating average prices, spar-value and price indices. Here the atypical sales are excluded such as partial sales or sales where the seller is a public authority. Second, there is the estimated number of sales, which is used for the preliminary figures, where all sales have not yet been registered. For the final figures, the estimated number of sales is equal to the actual number of sales. All types of both typical and atypical sales are included in the estimated number of sales.

For the transactions that are included in the price calculation, the statistics show an average price where different quality of the real estates have not been taken into account. For agricultural and building sites, the statistics show an average price per hectare or square meter. However, since the quality of different real estate transactions varies from property to property the statistics also show the Purchase sum in percent of taxable value, which is calculated as a weighted average of the ratio between the transaction price and the appraisal value. This is also called the value-weighted spar-value (Sales Price and Appraisal Ratio). The difference between the transaction price and the appraisal value covers both the development of the transaction price since the time of the valuation and a possible systematic difference between the transaction price and the appraisal value. The spar-value is used to calculate the price index, as the change in the spar-value between two consecutive periods is used to represent the price change. This applies on the assumption that any systematic differences between the transaction price and the appraisal value are the same at different periods, and therefore are eliminated in the calculation. Both the price index and the other key figures are broken down by geography and property category, such as one-family houses, owner-occupied flats, weekend cottages, agricultural properties and business properties. Price indices are only calculated for properties that have been traded in ordinary free trade, while the key figures are also distributed by type of transfer.

The House Price Index (HPI), which is calculated under the auspices of the EU-Harmonized Index of Consumer Price (HICP), on the other hand, is calculated as a single price index for one-family houses, owner-occupied flats and weekend cottages including all types of transfers (ordinary free trade, family transfer and other transfers). The House Price Index is calculated for existing dwellings and newly built dwellings separately, which is then aggregated by using fixed weights (Laspeyres Price Index), while the other price indices do not distinguish between existing and newly built properties. The sales of cooperative housing should be included in the House Price Index, which is likely to happen during 2022. However, cooperative housing should not be included in the traditional statistic of sales of real estate properties, since you do own land which you buy a share of in a Housing Cooperative. The sales of cooperative housing is not included in the statistic of sales of real estate properties since they are not registered in the land registration system. However, cooperative housing should be included in the House Price Index which is likely to happen during 2022.

The statistics also contain an inventory of first-time buyers divided into different municipal groups. First-time buyers are defined as buyers of owner-occupied dwellings who have not owned an dwelling in the past three years.

Since 26 March 2024, a new price index has been introduced for one-family houses, owner-occupied flats and weekend cottages based on population weights in tables EJ56 (quarterly figures) and EJ67 (annual figures). The change meets a user request and means that the price index for regions and the national level combines the price indices for the 11 provinces of the country with population weights, where trade weights were previously used that reflected the property valuation for the properties traded in the period (quarter or year).

Classification system

The statistics are grouped geographically by regions and provinces and by category of real property (even though some of the detailed categories are only available after payment) and by type of transfer:

• Ordinary free trade
• Intra-family sales
• Other sales

Finally the inventory of first-time buyers in the table LABY22 is divided by different types of municipalities

Sector coverage

Not relevant for these statistics.

Statistical concepts and definitions

Ordinary free trade: Sales between parties who are not related to each other and where there is no partial gift. Price index is calculated only for ordinary free trade.

Residential and business property: Property where, in addition to residential premises, there are premises that are used for business purposes, provided that the business use amounts to at least 25 per cent. of the value of the property.

Residential property with 2 flats or more: Property that contains at least 2 apartments and has an area of ??less than 5501 sqm. The property may also include individual premises that are used for commercial purposes, if the commercial use amounts to less than 25 per cent. of the value of the property.

Owner-Occupied flat: Apartment used for residential purposes and which is located in either multi-storey properties or single-family houses, semi-detached houses and two- and three-family houses and which has the character of open-low buildings and terraced houses which have the character of dense-low buildings. For example, terraced houses that are located on a plot that is not subdivided, but where the individual units in the buildings have been subdivided into owner-occupied flats. Owner-Occupied flats can be free or not free from the obligations of the tenancy law, which i.a. aims at protecting previous tenants against termination. The market value is significantly lower for owner-occupied flats that are still rented out compared to owner-occupied flats that can be freely sold.

One-family house: Property with one apartment that is used for living and has an area of ??less than 5501 sqm. The properties may include individual premises that are used for commercial purposes, if the commercial use amounts to less than 25 per cent. of the value of the property. Townhouses where the land is matriculated for each house are single-family houses.

Industrial property and warehouse: Property that only contains premises that are used for industrial companies, larger workshops, gas, electricity, water and heating plants, independent storage facilities and which are typically located in an industrial district.

Intra-family sales: Sales between spouses or between persons, who are related by marriage, even if the sale does not include a gift.

Agricultural property: Built-up property used for agriculture and which has an area of ??at least 0,55 acres.

Business property: Property that only contains premises that are used for business.

Weekend cottages: Property which is intended for summer residence and which is typically located in a holiday home area.

Building site: Land that contains all undeveloped areas except undeveloped agricultural plots.

Statistical unit

The statistical unit is real estate.

Statistical population

The population includes all registered real state transactions.

Reference area

Denmark.

Time coverage

The statistics cover the period 1992- to the present.

Base period

For figures that are published as an index, the index reference period is 2006 = 100, except for the House Price Index (HPI) which use index reference period 2015=100.

Unit of measure

Number, DKK 1.000 and index.

Reference period

The month of the contract date (sales agreement date, deed date or registration date in the land registration system).

Frequency of dissemination

Monthly, quarterly and yearly.

Legal acts and other agreements

Legal authority for data collection is provided by the Act on Statistics Denmark, section 6, cf. Statutory Order no. 610 of 30/05/2018. The European Commission has adopted a Reguation(no. 93/2013) on Harmonized index of Consumer Price (HICP), as far as the introduction of owner-occupied house price index in concerned. The Regulation shall apply from 1. September 2012 and shall be binding in all EU-Member States in accordance with the Treaties. This Regulation has been updated in 2016: no. 792/2016. This Regulation introduced e.g. a House Price Index (HPI) in order to improve the relevance and comparability of the harmonized index of consumer price. The Regulation obliges Member States, in accordance with common guidelines, to produce and transmit price indices for households' purchases of owner-occupied housing (and cooperative housing) under the harmonized index of consumer price. The house price index (HPI) is not intended to be aggregate with items in the international harmonized index of consumer price (HICP), but should instead act as an independent supplement to it.

Cost and burden

The statistics are based on administrative records. Therefore there is no direct burden to the compilation of these statistics. Data comes from the electronic land registration system for registration of ownership of real properties.

Comment

Additional information can be requested by contacting Statistics Denmark or on the website of Sales of Real Estate Property.