Guidance

Valuation Office Agency Rent Officers: Lettings Information

Details why we collect Lettings Information and what is produced from the data collected.

Valuation Office Agency (VOA) Rent Officers depend on the goodwill and trust of landlords, letting agents and tenants who provide rental levels being paid in the private rented sector (PRS). Around half a million PRS records are voluntarily provided each year. Together they form a unique database representing rents paid in England.

When you contribute details of rent levels you help to improve data used to:

  • determine levels of Local Housing Allowance Rates across England
  • provide local authorities in England with Housing Benefit determinations
  • provide Fair Rent valuations
  • work closely with the ONS, they use our data for research and statistical purposes including:
    • production of Price Index of Private Rental monthly statistics providing detailed analysis of the Rental Market Private rent and house prices, UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
    • production of Information detailing your local area – searches can be made by Local Authority, this is then compared with the region, country and nationally. Housing Prices in your Area
    • measures of inflation like the Consumer Price Index (Housing) – the government preferred inflation measure - your rental data contributes up to 20% of CPIH, the ONS lead measure of inflation

How you can help

To contribute data, please go to our dedicated forms page which offers you the option of submitting your data through online forms or simple downloaded forms that can be completed offline and emailed back to us at roli@voa.gov.uk.

Lettings and management agents who wish to supply a high volume of rental details digitally can contact helpdesk.lha@voa.gov.uk

The basic rental details needed are:

  • full property address
  • type of property
  • number of bedrooms and living rooms
  • tenancy start date
  • rent paid

Individual properties and the source of rental information remains confidential. For more details see our Privacy Notice.

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Updates to this page

Published 11 October 2023
Last updated 27 August 2024 + show all updates
  1. Link to new forms page added.

  2. The content has been updated.

  3. First published.

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