NASDAQ OMX Stockholm AB, part of the NASDAQ OMX Group (NASDAQ:NDAQ), together with Valueguard today introduced a new suite of housing price index, “NASDAQ OMX Valueguard-KTH Flats” (HOX), based on the price development for privately held flats in Sweden's three largest cities.
The HOX index will increase the transparency of the housing market by providing timely and trustworthy information of the monthly price movements. This is the first step in building a standardized market for financial products with housing prices as the base. In the longer run, households will be able to invest in products that give a return equal to the price changes in the housing markets.
The calculation of the index is done by Valueguard Index Sweden, based on a methodology developed together with the KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The index base value is 100 and the base date is January 2005, and distribution starts today.
“The housing market in Sweden is about the same size as the market capitalization of the entire NASDAQ OMX Stockholm”, says Erik Thedéen, President NASDAQ OMX Stockholm. “For most households, the house is the largest asset and we believe that many house-owners could benefit from being able to manage their exposure to this market and to save in financial products with the return linked to house prices”.
Håkan Toll, CEO of Valueguard, says: ”We are pleased to launch this suite of indices together with NASDAQ OMX. We believe that this is the first step for the introduction of financial products based on these indices that can be used by both professional and retail investors to manage their exposure to this market.”