The statistical sources used for this work were:
1. The database of the real estate company UNICASA. This was the main
statistical source from which we collected data on the price of dwellings and
their structural attributes. This source ensured that the price set for the houses
matched the actual purchasing price.
2. The Local Census for 2001. This source, obtained from the Municipal Census
Office of Malaga City Hall was used for the socioeconomic and population
variables.
3. Additional data was obtained from: the Population and Housing Census 2001
(Censo de Poblacion y Vivienda 2001, www.ine.es); the Statistical Bulletin of
the Ministry of Public Works (Boletin Estadistico, Ministerio de Fomento,
www.mfom.es); and the SIMA Database created by the Institute of Statistics of
Andalusia (www.juntadeandalucia.es/institutodeestadistica).
We also include some variables derived from other statistical databases which are not
original but which should be mentioned due to their special significance:
1. The location variables and those requiring the distribution of dwellings into
municipal districts were created from data and city plans facilitated by the
Computing Center of Malaga City Council.
2. Finally, the records referring to house orientation were collected ad hoc by
either locating them in the city plans or by visiting the actual dwellings.
The original sample provided by UNICASA included a large amount of information on
8919 potential or actual sales in the province of Malaga. After applying the criteria indicated to
the initial database and deleting incomplete and non-relevant records, the database analyzed
included a total of 1996 records. According to the latest official information available from the
Population and Housing Census 2001 this figure comprises almost 1% of the housing stock of
Malaga city.
Appendix 1 shows the variables included in the original model and a brief descriptive
analysis of them. Selected variable definitions are given in appendix 2.