In the real estate sector, access to data has long been hindered by the compartmentalization of resources and the strategic nature of data needed to understand markets, with the result that it has generally been collected by private, for-profit players and distributed on a fee-paying basis. As for public players, constraints in terms of resources and the need to protect personal data also limited their ability to freely distribute statistical information.

However, these restrictions have been lifted over the last few years, thanks to the widespread use of big data management tools and the rise of national transparency policies, promoting free access to public data on transaction prices, on buildings and land characterization, etc. We have thus entered an era of data abundance, with virtually unlimited exploratory potential (Wei et al, 2022; Vidal, 2021). This now enables increasingly fruitful cross-fertilization between data sets, particularly with demographic or economic data. This immense potential, however, opens up new challenges, because just because information is available doesn't mean it can be understood (Casanova Enault et al., 2019). On the contrary, the profusion of information can produce numerous errors of interpretation and strong methodological biases, making expertise in this field even more essential than before.

The aim of this session is therefore to invite contributions that will illustrate the different national situations with regard to real estate data: what is the degree of openness to free information? Are there centralized, public entry points in this field? And how reliable is the data thus available (degree of completeness, validity of sources, up-to-datedness of figures, etc.)? How to deal with anonymization issues (Le Corre, 2023)? From a more experimental point of view, what new analysis models and indicators emerge from these new possibilities of crossing sources? Finally, what effects are likely to be produced by the generalization of access to data: is transparency a guarantee of greater equity in the face of real estate markets, or does it risk generating other forms of socio-economic inequality (Coulondre & Juillard, 2021; Barkham et al, 2018)? In all cases, the question of cooperation between public and private players becomes central.

Contributions that are either epistemological, methodological and/or critical will therefore be appreciated to enable a broad apprehension of the issue of data in real estate.

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