How to access HM Land Registry Price Paid Data
Information about Price Paid Data and how you can get it.
Applies to England and Wales
Price Paid Data tracks property sales in England and Wales submitted to HM Land Registry for registration. Price Paid Data is based on the raw data released each month.
The amount of time between the England and Wales that are sold for sale of a property and the registration of this information with HM Land Registry varies. It typically ranges between 2 weeks and 2 months. Data for the two most recent months is therefore incomplete and does not give an indication of final monthly volumes. Occasionally the interval between sale and registration is longer than two months. The small number of sales affected cannot be updated for publication until the sales are lodged for registration.
To access price paid data information: 1 * download complete files from our price paid data page * build specific reports within our price paid data tool based upon geographic areas * create standard reports based upon geographic areas
Download options
Choose from 3 options to select the data that best meets your requirements:
- single file: contains all the up to date data from 1995 to the current date
- monthly file: contains a single monthly file of the transactions received in the period from the first to the last day of the corresponding month, including any changes or deletions to previously downloaded data
- yearly file: contains annual files of up to date data, ranging from 1995 to the current date. Unlike the monthly files described above, yearly files are collated on the date of the transaction/deed date rather than the date that the information was lodged with HM Land Registry.
Historic file incorporating Additional Price Paid Data, or APPD, (limited edition): contains transactions from 14 October 2013 to 30 September 2015.
Explanations of column headers in the PPD
The data is published in columns in the order set out in the table, we do not supply column headers in the files.
| Data item | Explanation (where appropriate) |
|---|---|
| Transaction unique identifier | A reference number which is generated automatically recording each published sale. The number is unique and will change each time a sale is recorded. |
| Price | Sale price stated on the transfer deed. |
| Date of Transfer | Date when the sale was completed, as stated on the transfer deed. |
| Postcode | This is the postcode used at the time of the original transaction. Note that postcodes can be reallocated and these changes are not reflected in the Price Paid Dataset. |
| Property Type | D = Detached, S = Semi-Detached, T = Terraced, F = Flats/Maisonettes, O = Other Note that: - we only record the above categories to describe property type, we do not separately identify bungalows - end-of-terrace properties are included in the Terraced category above - ‘Other’ is only valid where the transaction relates to a property type that is not covered by existing values, for example where a property comprises more than one large parcel of land |
| Old/New | Indicates the age of the property and applies to all price paid transactions, residential and non-residential. Y = a newly built property, N = an established residential building |
| Duration | Relates to the tenure: F = Freehold, L= Leasehold etc. Note that HM Land Registry does not record leases of 7 years or less in the Price Paid Dataset. |
| PAON | Primary Addressable Object Name. Typically the house number or name. |
| SAON | Secondary Addressable Object Name. Where a property has been divided into separate units (for example, flats), the PAON (above) will identify the building and a SAON will be specified that identifies the separate unit/flat. |
| Street | |
| Locality | |
| Town/City | |
| District | |
| County | |
| PPD Category Type | Indicates the type of Price Paid transaction. A = Standard Price Paid entry, includes single residential property sold for value. B = Additional Price Paid entry including transfers under a power of sale/repossessions, buy-to-lets (where they can be identified by a Mortgage), transfers to non-private individuals and sales where the property type is classed as ‘Other’. Note that category B does not separately identify the transaction types stated. HM Land Registry has been collecting information on Category A transactions from January 1995. Category B transactions were identified from October 2013. |
| Record Status - monthly file only | Indicates additions, changes and deletions to the records.(see guide below). A = Addition C = Change D = Delete Note that where a transaction changes category type due to misallocation (as above) it will be deleted from the original category type and added to the correct category with a new transaction unique identifier. |
The date field - the date of the transfer deed lodged with us for registration.
Data excluded from Price Paid Data
Our Price Paid Data includes information on all residential property sales in England and Wales that are sold for value and are lodged with us for registration.
Our Price Paid Data excludes:
- sales that have not been lodged with HM Land Registry
- sales that were not for value
- transfers, conveyances, assignments or leases at a premium with nominal rent, which are:
- ‘Right to buy’ sales at a discount
- subject to an existing mortgage
- to effect the sale of a share in a property, for example, a transfer between parties on divorce
- by way of a gift
- under a compulsory purchase order
- under a court order
- to Trustees appointed under Deed of appointment
- Vesting Deeds Transmissions or Assents of more than one property
Interaction between Price Paid Data and Additional Price Paid Data
While we do our best to maintain the quality of our Price Paid Data, occasionally it will be necessary to make changes. Changes are applied to the single/yearly download files, linked data and Price Paid Data report builder monthly and can be downloaded when required.
A flag will notify customers who use of the monthly change only update (COU) file of any changes or deletion requiring action each month. For most changes these will be recorded using the Record status guide below. However, for a change in category type, we will delete the transaction from the original category type and add it to the correct category, with a new transaction unique identifier. For example:
- in July a transaction is captured as category A (Standard data) and published as an addition to the dataset
- in August the transaction has been changed to a B category (Additional data). The data will show a delete to the category A transaction using the original unique transaction identifier and an addition to the category B data with a new unique transaction identifier
Record Status guide csv files
The guide highlights when additions, changes or deletions have been made to a record, this applies to the monthly file only:
- A - Added records: records added into the price paid dataset in the monthly refresh due to new sales transactions
- C - Changed records: records changed in the price paid dataset in the monthly refresh. You should replace or update records in any stored data using the unique identifier to recognise them
- D - Deleted records: records deleted from the price paid dataset in the monthly refresh. You should delete records from any stored data using the unique identifier to recognise them
When a transaction changes category type due to misallocation it will be deleted from the original category type and added to the correct category with a new transaction unique identifier.
What Linked Data users need to know about Additional Price Paid Data
Following the inclusion of Additional Price Paid Data we have made some changes to the linked data transaction records. Previously when a transaction record was updated, the old transaction record was removed and a new one with a new Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) was added. This could cause broken references to the transaction record that had been removed. To resolve this issue, the record will be given a fixed URI that will not change if corrections are made to the data. We will change the individual properties/attributes of a transaction record if the data is corrected in any way.
We have also removed the ‘ppi:publishDate’ property.
Additional Price Paid Data and VAT
When the price paid data for a property transaction is captured, the price paid information quoted in the transfer deed lodged for registration is recorded. Some commercial property transactions lodged for registration quote the price paid and make a statement about value added tax (VAT). This statement may include the specific amount of VAT paid or may state that VAT is ‘excluded’ or ‘included’. There will also be occasions when VAT is not mentioned.
When the price paid quoted in a transfer deed differentiates between the consideration and the VAT, the price paid recorded will exclude VAT, eg if a transfer deed quotes the ‘price paid to be £100,000 plus VAT’ only £100,000 will be recorded. However when the consideration is inclusive of VAT, eg the ‘price paid is stated to be £100,000 inclusive of VAT, the transaction is excluded from the dataset. This is because we do not make decisions on the percentage of VAT that should be applied to historic transactions.
Our process for recording register entries for price paid remains unchanged and will continue to refer to VAT where appropriate.
Reporting a Price Paid Data error
If you know of an error in price paid information for sales or believe a sale is ‘missing’ from information you have viewed, use our change a sales record form so that we can update our records and inform third parties. You will need both the postcode and date of sale to complete the form.
Complain about Price Paid Data being made publicly available
We are legally required to note the price paid information on a register of the title for all residential properties sold for value. The register of title is a public document, so we would be breaking the law if we failed to allow access to the register or excluded the price paid information. The price paid information is released in the form of price paid data under the terms of Open Government Licence.
If you are unhappy with the principle of price paid information being recorded on the register, or the release of this data, see our complaints procedure. If you wish to report or complain about a discrepancy in the price paid information, complete our change a sales record form. This will ensure the matter is investigated and appropriate action taken.
How to avoid direct marketing
Under the Open Government Licence, the data is freely available for commercial and non-commercial reuse purposes. The users of the data have an obligation, under the Open Government Licence, to ensure that their use of the data does not breach the Data Protection Act 2018 or the Privacy and Electronic Communication (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. At the moment, we do not intend to impose any more restrictions on the use of the data for direct marketing purpose.
If you wish to opt out of receiving direct marketing material, refer to the website for Information Commissioner’s Office.
Using a single month of Price Paid Data in isolation
The single large file and yearly files have amendments and/or deletions applied to the data, ensuring the data is complete, up to date and accurate. Subsequent monthly files may contain amendments if a record is added, changed or deleted. If an amendment is made a status marker will appear at the end of the record to indicate the type of change. You will need to consider this change if you compare month files.
How the data can be used
The data creates numerous opportunities for individuals and organisations to share it, or combine it with other data to create new applications and services. For example some application developers, data analysts, estate agents and property website owners have used the data to:
- analyse trends and patterns in the housing market
- create valuation software and price estimations
- use insights to develop housing and social policy
- innovate and grow their business.
Non-disclosure of homeowners’ personal information
Price Paid Data is not personal information about individuals but property related information. The data recorded in the register is open to public inspection and has been provided commercially for many years under the Information Fair Trader Accreditation. This is run by the Office of Public Sector Information, which is part of The National Archives.
Before releasing the data a privacy impact assessment was conducted. We also conducted a review after releasing the data. Neither of which revealed any major adverse impacts or formal legal challenge.
See the Privacy Impact Assessment Review and the Review report: April 2013.
Common problems with Excel
- The release of the yearly Price Paid Data files from 1995 to 2013 has resulted in the creation of files that contain more than 1 million rows. These files are too large to be processed in older versions of Excel.
- We are aware that users of Excel have experienced problems when accessing the Price Paid Data CSV file using Excel. A common problem is the auto-conversion of dates to a different format (e.g. “2013-10-04 00:00” to 04/10/2013 00:00) and conversion of fields containing a numeric range to a date value (e.g. “2-7” to 2nd July).
You can avoid these problems by putting an equals (=) sign in front of every field you don’t want auto converted. For example:
“{75520218-C2D9-4926-95E3-00061A7A3784}”,”248000”,=”2013-10-04 00:00”,”CR2 6PB”,”T”,”N”,”F”,”36”,”2 - 7”,”SELSDON ROAD”,””,”SOUTH CROYDON”,”CROYDON”,”GREATER LONDON”,”A”
This will keep the date in the same format instead of converting it to 04/10/2013 00:00
Price Paid Data report builder
Access the report builder
Browser Support
As of April 2014, HM Land Registry no longer tests new application software releases against Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 onwards, Safari 7 onwards and the latest version of any browsers which automatically update, such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome are supported.
Guidance on searching the data
We try to make sure that our public data is as accurate as possible but cannot guarantee that it is free from errors. Our Price Paid Data reports are based on data collected at the time a property transaction was registered with us and will not necessarily be up to date with the most recent information. Because data is captured at the time of registration, updates to counties or postcodes will not be shown on sales before the changes took effect.
In order to get a more comprehensive report for your location criteria, you may need to try several things:
- try using your location in both town/city and district. Often a metropolitan district can cover more than one town or city
- try multiple searches using both the most recent and previously used towns/counties, for example Bristol/City of Bristol?
- use variations in district in order to reflect changes in administrative areas. Over time district may have changed for an address for a number of reasons. The district name may have changed, the area might have been transferred to another authority or the area might have become a unitary authority. For example, transactions for a property in Saltash, Cornwall dating before April 2009 will be shown as district: Caradon (the former district) whilst more recent transactions will be shown as district: Cornwall (the current unitary authority)
- use various levels of searches to find specific areas. For example, despite the name, Princetown is a village on Dartmoor in Devon. For postal purposes, it’s part of the town of Yelverton. Both are within the Plymouth postcode area and within the postcode district of PL20 which includes several other settlements on and around Dartmoor. If you were to search using a wider definition of the area, (Yelverton or the postcode sector PL20) you can then filter the results by locality in order to find only those referenced as Princetown.
Reason why a search may timeout
We have set a time limit for Price Paid Data queries, and this means that you will see a timeout message if your search takes more than a minute to run. This time limit has been implemented to ensure that the system isn’t slowed down by excessively large queries. This also protects customers from unexpectedly large results sets being returned, with associated delays in system response and possible data download charges from your internet provider. If you have a particular need to run complex queries we suggest that you download the full price paid dataset, as this will give you unrestricted access to that data.
Unable to search for addresses by locality
Addresses used by HM Land Registry to describe land are mostly derived from Royal Mail address data. Town is the primary identifier for addresses but locality may also be used to identify smaller urban and rural places. However, locality is not consistently used; for example, in an urban area locality may only be included in an address in order to distinguish between multiple streets with the same name in a town. In addition, HM Land Registry addresses have been collected over many years and over time inconsistencies may have occurred.
This means that searching by locality may not return a complete dataset and we advise that it is safer to search by town. Once you have run your search you have the option to filter your search by locality (click the spyglass button beside a locality name in the results set). You also have the option to download the full price paid dataset, which will give you unrestricted access to that data.
The difference between ‘transactions’ and ‘properties’
Your results provide a statement which tells you how many transactions and properties are being returned. While properties are self-explanatory, transactions relate to the number of sales which have been returned. The two numbers will differ as a property can transact more than one in the time period searched. Therefore, you may see 100 properties returned with 105 transactions, meaning that one or more of the properties has changed ownership multiple times.
Our data is derived from all residential property transactions registered with HM Land Registry since January 1995. See the list of exclusions for further information.
The order of displayed search results
In the list of results, individual addresses are grouped together by street. Those streets are in turn grouped by postal town, district and county. So, for example, any results in Gloucestershire would appear before results in Hampshire; within Gloucestershire results from Cheltenham would appear before results from Gloucester; and within Cheltenham addresses on Albert Road would be listed before addresses on Pitville Circus.
Unable to see all search results
When completing the initial screen you are asked to choose how many results you would like back. This has been set to 100 so that you can ensure that your search criteria is correct before requesting the full results. Note that the sample data returned is a random sample, the order and number of transactions per property can alter when requesting more data.
Full results can be requested from the results page itself or when choosing to download the results. When downloading the results, note that you have the option to print only those selected as a preview or the full results.
Download search results into a spreadsheet
You can do this by choosing to download the data at the top of the results page. You will be given several options to download your results in csv format.
Unable to see results when downloading the data
When downloading the results, note that you have the option to print only those selected as a preview or the full results.
Download the data with an explanation of the data attributes
When you download the data as a spreadsheet there are four options available:
- get selected results as CSV
- get all results as CSV
- get selected results as CSV with headers
- get all results as CSV with headers
By selecting one of the options with headers you will download a spreadsheet with the data attributes above each column. For more information refer to Explanations of column headers in the PPD.
Reason why the downloaded property characteristics data may differ from those shown on the search results page
Price Paid Data is property price information for all single residential property sales in England and Wales sold for value, that are lodged with us for registration. The data captured is that at the time of registration and can be subject to change.
Occasionally a property type can change, for example a detached property could be converted into flats between sales and one of these could retain the previous address. In this instance we would only show the most recent property type in our results, however, when downloading the data you would receive multiple rows which detail the property characteristics at the time of registration for each transaction.
If a property type has been incorrectly identified and we have been notified of the need for a change, we will amend the data. You can notify us of any errors in our data using our Change a sales record form.
Licences
Find out more about licences:
Updates to this page
Published 14 August 2014Last updated 14 June 2016 + show all updates
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Mention of House Price Index (HPI) information removed, due to new UK HPI being launched on 14 June.
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Added link to information about our new "Standard Reports" tool.
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"additional price paid transactions valued below £100 or above £99,999,999" added as part of our Data excluded from the House Price Index and Price Paid Data.
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Updating the page with information about Additional Price Paid Data (APPD), including: explanations of column headers in the PPD, excluded data, interaction between Price Paid Data and APPD, what do Linked Data users need to know about APPD and APPD and VAT.
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First published.