The National Land Survey has changed the delimitation rules in the service Statistical information on real estate transactions. The delimitation rules were changed because there was a quality deviation in the Official purchase price register. The change affects statistics on built real estate with one-family homes from 2013 onwards.

The former delimitation rules included only such purchases of built properties with single-family homes, where the existence of a residential building has been noted on the conveyance notification. Some of the data in the Official purchase price register is transferred from the Property Transaction Service, where it is not mandatory to mention the building type.

Property purchases lacking precise information about building types were left out of the statistics with the old delimitation rules. In accordance with the new delimitation rules, such purchases are included in the statistics.

Delimitation rule changes in detail

The delimitation rule that is based on the building type has been changed so that from now on, the statistics on built properties with single-family homes also include purchases with the information “the conveyance includes the buildings on the property”.

Before the change, purchases of built properties with single-family homes in sparsely populated areas and in areas with a local detailed plan, where the building type is not included on the conveyance notification were excluded from the statistics.

Even in future, conveyances that mention the existence of an office or industrial building on the property are excluded from the statistics. In addition, purchases that contain information about a holiday cottage or other building are excluded from the statistics if there is no information about a residential buiding on the conveyance notification.

Purchases that contain information about an office or industrial building on the property are excluded from statistics concerning built properties with one-family homes in parsely populated areas, if there is no information about a residential building on the conveyance notification.

Purchases that contain information about an office or industrial building on the property are excluded from the statistics on built holiday properties, if there is no information about a holiday cottage on the conveyance notification.

The change to delimitation rules means more purchases of residential properties

The change to delimitation rules increases the number of purchases included in the statiistics as follows:

• in the period 2013–2020 the number of purchases increases by less than one percent
• in the period 2020–2022 the number of purchases increases by a few percent
• in 2023 the number of purchases increases by approx. 15 percent
• in 2024 the number of purchases increases by more than 20 percent.

Following the change to delimitation rules statistics may include property purchases that do not contain residential buildings. A strict delimitation based on building type would, however, on the whole cause a more significant weakening in the coverage of these statistics.  For this reason the building type will only be used as a delimiting criterion when it has been included in the notification.

Changes to statistics on holiday properties and residential properties in sparsely populated areas

Small changes have also been introduced in the statistics on holiday properties and single-family house properties in sparsely populated areas. The statistical software used to produce these statistics lacked some delimiting criteria that include special conditions that have been withheld in the purchase. The delimiting criteria in the software have been updated to match the descriptions in the tables in the service Statistical information on real estate transactions.

This change will decrease the number of purchases in the statistics by a few dozen a year.