Identifying a practical approach to extracting the consumption component in housing costs clearly requires further research and testing. For instance, this could involve modelling techniques that adjust the raw information in house price dynamics (that surely has an investment component) through cross-referencing other data series, including information on land values, construction costs and rents, among others.
It is also important to learn from the international experience with a range of data collection methods. For instance, one interesting benchmark is provided by the “New Housing Price Index” published by Statistics Canada: based on an electronic survey, this monthly index is published in a timely manner.