Building costs
Building costs refer to the amount of money needed to complete a particular building or construction job whose characteristics have been determined in advance, when these costs have been determined based on input prices. The building cost index measures the cost development of construction work defined in this manner over time. The price of construction work refers to the amount of money with which someone is ready to perform the work in question. In addition to input prices, this price is defined based on the prevailing market price.
Professional construction
Professional construction refers to commercial building, building that is carried out against payment, cf. own-account construction.
Own-account construction
Own-account construction refers to building projects carried out by households, which include newbuilding and renovation building of detached houses, summer cottages, agricultural buildings and other outhouse buildings without using paid labour force. Cf. professional construction.
Transfer price coefficient
The transfer price coefficients are calculated based on the changes in the building cost index. They are used when calculating the transfer compensation of rental property shares in a real estate or housing company or the maximum price of a rental property leveraged with a long-term modernisation loan. The calculation of the transfer price coefficient is always based on the building cost index calculated at any given time. The building cost indices for different base years have their own product selections and weight structures. This ensures that the index measures correctly the prevailing cost structure of construction at any given time.
Input nomenclature
The main classification of the building cost index is (the input nomenclature link), which is Statistics Finland's own classification. At the top level of the nomenclature, the input headings can be classified into three main categories (cost types): labour, materials and services.
Labour input
Labour input describes the development of labour costs in building construction compared to the base year. Their monitoring is based on the average earnings of full-time wage and salary earners and indirect labour costs in accordance with collective agreements of the construction industry and on earnings development projections.
Material input
The material input describes the price development of materials and supplies used in the construction industry compared to the price development of the base year. Their monitoring is based on a monthly inquiry directed at manufacturers, wholesalers and retail traders of construction materials.
Other inputs
Other inputs include price data on services that are not directly linked to building construction. Part of them are linked to building development and part to joint costs of the construction site. The costs from transport, machine works and lift installations are collected by monitoring subcontractor prices.
Type of building
In the building cost index 2015=100, building construction production has been divided into four building types: residential detached house, residential block of flats, business premises and production building. The overall point figure of the building cost index is calculated as the weighted average of the cost distributions of these building types.