New property IDs are landing in England and Wales house price data this week – what you should know
Key Points
- HM Land Registry adds UPRNs and INSPIRE IDs to Price Paid Data from 28 August 2026
- The identifiers arrive as separate lookup tables alongside the monthly dataset
- UPRNs identify an addressable location; INSPIRE IDs identify a mapped land parcel
- Lookup tables cover new releases only, not previously published datasets
- UK Companies and Overseas Companies data get the same treatment later this financial year
HM Land Registry will attach two property identifiers to its monthly Price Paid Data from Friday (28 August).
The identifiers arrive as separate lookup tables sitting alongside the dataset, which records residential and commercial property sales across England and Wales.
A Unique Property Reference Number, or UPRN, is a unique number that identifies an addressable location. An INSPIRE ID is an automatically generated number tied to a polygon on a map, outlining a piece of land or property.
Together they let anyone using the data connect a sale price to a specific property or land parcel, instead of relying on address text that varies from system to system.
HM Land Registry said the change answers customer demand to link sale price information with other property and location datasets.
“We have a strategic plan to unlock the value of our data to create new opportunities for innovation and growth,” said Lynne Nicholson, Deputy Director for Data at HM Land Registry.
Nicholson said the department will add similar lookup tables to its UK Companies data and Overseas Companies data later this financial year.
GeoPlace manages the official national address and street databases for England and Wales, and it allocates UPRNs to local authorities and Ordnance Survey.
HM Land Registry already links title numbers to UPRNs, connecting ownership records with authoritative location data.
“Extending that approach to Price Paid Data is a natural next step,” said Nick Chapallaz, Managing Director at GeoPlace.
Chapallaz said the UPRN gives the property sector a certainty of reference, so different organisations work with the same property however its address appears in their systems.
HM Land Registry set out several uses for the identifiers, including:
- Estate agents and portals matching historic sale prices to the correct property
- Lenders connecting sale price, address and property records during valuation and mortgage assessment
- Developers and investors linking sold prices to land parcels and boundaries
- Government and researchers analysing housing markets across properties, places and land parcels
- Homebuyers and sellers hitting fewer errors from address changes and inconsistent formats
Local authorities create new addresses and assign each property a UPRN, then send updates to GeoPlace for the national databases. Ordnance Survey then carries the information through its address products and mapping services.
HM Land Registry publishes Price Paid Data at 11am on the 20th working day of each month. The lookup tables apply only to datasets published from 28 August onwards, and they will not cover earlier releases.
Users can download the data in text, CSV and machine-readable linked data formats under the Open Government Licence, which permits commercial and non-commercial use.
