Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/1949 of 10 November 2021 on the principles for estimating dwelling services for the purposes of Regulation (EU) 2019/516 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the harmonisation of gross national income at market prices (GNI Regulation) and repealing Commission Decision 95/309/EC, Euratom and Commission Regulation (EC) No 1722/2005 (Text with EEA relevance)

For the purposes of Regulation (EU) 2019/516 the principles for estimating dwelling services, as set out in this Regulation, shall apply.

1 Member States shall apply the stratification method based on actual rentals in order to compile the output of dwelling services. Member States shall use tabular analyses or statistical techniques to derive pertinent stratification criteria.

2 To compile imputed rentals, Member States shall make use of actual rentals due for the right to use an unfurnished dwelling under contracts relating to privately-owned dwellings. They may also make use of rentals for furnished dwellings if scaled down so as to exclude payments for the use of the furniture. Member States with a small private rental sector may exceptionally make use of duly increased public rentals in order to enlarge the basis for imputed rentals.

In exceptional cases, and when duly justified, Member States may apply other objective methods, such as the user-cost method. No justification shall be required for use of the user-cost method in compiling the output of owner-occupied dwellings, provided that the following conditions are met: (a) privately rented dwellings must represent less than 10 % of the dwelling stock; and (b) if (a) is fulfilled and the share of the total rented dwellings – market and non-market – in the total dwelling stock exceeds 10 %, the disparity between market and other paid rentals must exceed a factor of three.

Member States using a base year approach shall extrapolate a given base year figure using appropriate quantity, price and quality indicators.

For dwelling services, Member States shall apply the detailed principles in Annex to estimate output, intermediate consumption and transactions with the rest of the world.

Decision 95/309/EC, Euratom and Regulation (EC) No 1722/2005 are repealed.

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.