CSO Statistical Liaison Group on Housing
Wednesday 26th September 2018
Central Statistics Office Conference Room A, Ardee Road, Dublin
Attendees:
Paul Morrin (CSO)
Declan Smyth (CSO)
Laura Flannelly (CSO)
Hannah Heeran (CSO)
Paul Alexander (CSO)
Barra Casey (CSO)
Paul Murphy (CSO)
Viacheslav Voronovich (CSO)
John Hayes (CSO)
Kieran McQuinn (ESRI)
Mel Reynolds
John McCartney (Savills)
Gerard Kenedy (CBI)
Daithi Downey (DCC)
Mary Clare O'Sullivan (Dept Taisoeach)
Karl Deeter (Irish Mortgage Brokers)
Paul Kilkenny (DPER)
Janusz Stolarek (Goodbody)
John Fitzgerald (TCD)
Simon Barry (Ulster Bank)
Ursula McAnulty (Housing Agency)
Roslyn Molloy (Housing Agency)
Paul Cotter (Dept Finance)
Peter Hallahan (OSi)
Tony Murphy (OSi)
Orla Hegarty (UCD)
Annette Hughes (EY-DKM)
George Hussey (DHPLG)
Agenda:
Item 1: Welcome, Introduction and Terms of Reference- Paul Morrin, CSO
- Tour of the table
- Terms of reference were discussed; it has been agreed that it is an evolving document which will be regularly reviewed
- Order of the meeting: John Hayes on the ADC, Laura Flannelly on linking housing data and then Paul Alexander on Housing in the 2021 Census.
Item 2: CSO Residential Property Sources and Prototype Property Register- John Hayes, CSO
- Housing, dwelling and residential property are used interchangeably by the CSO. Term defined by data flow within the Administrative Data Centre (ADC).
- For a property to be considered occupied it must show ‘signs of life’.
- For rural dwellings, may have to settle on coding at an electoral division level.
- Large emphasis on increasing use and maintenance of Eircode on databases held by public sector bodies (PSBs).
Questions/Comments:
- Discuss the term ‘signs of life’.
- Challenges in assigning Eircodes at the planning permission or ‘pouring foundation’ stage.
- Intensity of occupation in dwellings.
- Explore the use of the SILC survey as a valuable housing database.
- Discussed the use of Geocodes rather than Eircodes.
- Could be valuable to record and report on construction related employment.
Item 3: From Planning to Completion: Challenges and possibilities for linking housing data- Laura Flannelly, CSO
Questions/Comments:
- Construction is not a linear process, and if treated as such there may be loss of information.
- Conversions difficult to capture in New Dwelling Completions.
- To catch non-compliance and expand database new regulation should be enforced- only give a property a MPRN once they have registered for a BER certificate.
- Relating properties to plot size and tracking them spatially could be more useful than using Eircodes.
- 1.5 million homes need to be updated for Ireland to comply with climate change goals- how will these renovations be captured? Could Eircode be introduced into existing housing stock as they seek BER ratings going forward, as part of meeting environmental targets in the future.
- Developing BER as a better data source to monitor the level of activity in housing construction.
- Discussion of how land prices impact residential property prices.
- HEA is monitoring student accommodation.
- Social housing figures from the Department of Housing should be included in the release. Link to the Departments data on social housing to be circulated to the group.
- Additional characteristics, such as the property developer, should be listed on completion certificates.
Item 4: Housing in Census 2021- Paul Alexander, Census Geography
- People’s understanding of the age of the property has declined in recent years. Care should be taken when benchmarking against previous Censuses.
- CBI has individual data on the cost of mortgages.
- Could enumerator detection of vacant dwellings for Census 2021 have the same issues as in the past – could administrative data (‘sign of life’) be incorporated into the process. For example, overlay information from enumerators with administrative data and validate against Daft.
- Housing floor area has shrunk over the years. Recording the number of rooms in a house might therefore be misleading when attempting to uncover the need for stock in the housing market.
- There was a suggestion not to include ‘wood’ as an option in the new renewable energy source question and also be careful of bringing forward the year completed reported for individual buildings as recorded in Census 2016 for Census 2021, until further analysis is completed on year built with dwellings that also exist in previous censuses.
