Finland - Residential Building Permits

For Finland, the building and dwelling production data set contains series that report the number, area, and volume of buildings and dwelling units. This data is broken down by phase of construction (permits issued, starts, completions) and by building type. 

The metrics are:

Active:

• Classification: Classification of Buildings 2018 ("Rakennusluokitus")
• Measurements:
  • Unitary count (#)
  • Square meters (m²)
  • Cubic meters (m³)
• Adjustment: Not seasonally adjusted (NSA)
• Native frequencies:
  • Monthly
  • Quarterly
• Start date: 1995
• Geo coverage:
  • Country
  • NUTS 2016 areas
  • NUTS 1 (2 IFIN_^^^^)
  • NUTS 2 (5 IFIN_^^)
  • NUTS 3 (19 IFIN_^^^)
• All concept-freq-geo combinations exist: No

Predecessors:

• CC 1994, quarterly - 1995 to 2021
• NUTS 2013 - 1995 to 2017
• CC 1994, prior method, monthly - 1990 to 2014
• CC 1994, prior method, quarterly - 1994 to 2014

The main classification by which the statistics are produced is the “Classification of buildings”, and the regional divisions used in their publication are whole country and regions.

In Finland all new building construction is subject to building permits. Municipal authorities follow and collect information about the building project and its progress. The statistics on building and dwelling production are based on the notifications submitted by municipal building supervision authorities to the Population Register Centre about building projects subject to building permits and their building stages.

Municipal building supervision authorithies collect information about building projects. These supervisors submit the information they collect to the Population Register Centre.

Definitions

Building

Any independent structure permanently constructed or erected on its site. It has its own entrance and contains covered space intended for different purposes, usually enclosed within outer walls or walls separating it from other structures (buildings).

Caves and other subterranean spaces which are mainly enclosed within rock or similar walls and/or which do not contain structures comparable to the interior structures of buildings proper, for example underground oil tanks, are not buildings.

Stalls, kiosks, etc. that do not contain space separated by closed walls, and transportable caravans, ships, etc. are not classified as buildings.

The building stock statistics do not include the following, except in cases where such buildings are occupied or contain business premises.

• free-time residences
• buildings intended for storing liquids
• buildings used only in agricultural production
• sauna buildings belonging to residential buildings
• outhouses of residential buildings
• buildings entirely controlled by foreign missions
• buildings of the Armed Forces
• air raid shelters

The data on buildings come from the Population Information System of the Population Register Centre.

Dwelling

A room or a suite of rooms which is intended for year-round habitation; is furnished with a kitchen, kitchenette or cooking area; and has a floor area of at least 7 square metres. Every dwelling must have its own entrance. A single-family house may be entered through an enclosed porch or veranda. If a dwelling is entered through the premises of another dwelling, it is not regarded as a separate dwelling but instead those two constitute one dwelling.

Building permit

A licence to build which is issued in accordance with the Land Use Act and the Planning and Construction Act and is granted by the municipal building control or environmental control authority dependent on the size of the building project. A notification must be made of all building projects subject to a building permit, and statistics on building and dwelling production are compiled from the information in these notifications.

Projects subject to a building permit comprise construction of a new building, construction of an annex, repairs and alterations comparable to the construction of a new building, extension of a building or increase of the space included in its floor area, and essential change of the purpose of use of a building or part of a building.

Started building

A building is recorded as a started building in the Population Register Centre's population information system when a municipal building control authority has completed an initial inspection and entered information about the starting date of building work into the system by filling in form RH5

Completed building

A building has been completed once a municipal building control official has conducted a commissioning inspection of it and entered the date of the inspection into the Population Register Centre's building and dwelling register (on form RH5).

Moody's Analytics supplements

We produce CDASAAR (calendar day adjusted, seasonally adjusted, annualized rate) versions of the monthly counts of permits and completions for dwelling units.

Additivity and breaks

Subnational areas may not sum to the national total. The source reports the areas as a continuous time series despite changes in NUTS delineations; for example, Kainuu (IFIN_KNU) contains a break at 2017Q4 from NUTS 2013 to NUTS 2016. Such series have a "[Break in boundaries from 2017Q4]" notation in the "source" metadata.

Further reading

At the source:

• Contact information
• Building and dwelling production information
• Classification of Buildings 1994
• Classification of Buildings 2018
• Concordance between the 1994 and 2018 classifications
• Statistics on building and dwelling production have been reviewed (Mar 2020)
• Revision policy