The Notaires-INSEE second-hand housing price indices provide a means of measuring changes in the prices of second-hand dwellings at constant quality. The price used is the net selling price, excluding property transfer duties, notary fees and agency commission.

Housing price indices can meet a variety of needs: from a simple analysis of price changes to an analysis of risk for lenders, to the implementation of monetary policy and national accounting.

Insee is responsible for providing official statistics, including the national accounts and price indices. Until the end of the 1990s, Insee published no housing price indices, except for the city of Paris which has had a series of indices for second-hand apartments since 1983.
In 1997, the Higher Council of the Notariat (Conseil Supérieur du Notariat - CSN) decided to create a price index for housing located outside Paris. It turned to Insee and its research centre (Crest) for advice on methodology. Formal agreements were signed in 1998 and 1999 between the notaries and Insee. Notaries collected the data and calculated the indices every quarter. In this way, many indices became available to the public free of charge.

Elaboration of housing price indices

Price index for dwellings