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Guidance
How to access HM Land Registry Price Paid
Data
Information about Price Paid Data and how you can get it.

From:
HM Land Registry (/government/organisations/land-registry)
Published
14 August 2014
Last updated
14 June 2016
—

Applies to England and Wales

Contents
Download options
Explanations of column headers in the PPD
Data excluded from Price Paid Data
Interaction between Price Paid Data and Additional Price Paid Data
What Linked Data users need to know about Additional Price Paid Data
Additional Price Paid Data and VAT
Price Paid Data report builder
Licences

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:

download complete files from our price paid data (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-

data-sets/price-paid-data-downloads) page
build specific reports within our price paid data tool (http://landregistry.data.gov.uk/app/ppd)
based upon geographic areas
create standard reports (https://www.gov.uk/price-paid-data-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
A reference number which is generated automatically recording each published
unique
sale. The number is unique and will change each time a sale is recorded.
identifier

Price Sale price stated on the transfer deed.

Date of
Date when the sale was completed, as stated on the transfer deed.
Transfer

This is the postcode used at the time of the original transaction. Note that
Postcode postcodes can be reallocated and these changes are not reflected in the Price
Paid Dataset.
Data item Explanation (where appropriate)

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

Property separately identify bungalows

Type - 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

Indicates the age of the property and applies to all price paid transactions,
Old/New residential and non-residential.

Y = a newly built property, N = an established residential building

Relates to the tenure: F = Freehold, L= Leasehold etc.

Duration 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.

Secondary Addressable Object Name. Where a property has been divided into
SAON 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  

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),
PPD
transfers to non-private individuals and sales where the property type is classed
Category
as ‘Other’.

Type
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.
 Data item Explanation (where appropriate)

Indicates additions, changes and deletions to the records.(see guide below).

A = Addition

Record C = Change

Status - D = Delete

monthly
file only 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
(https://landregistry.data.gov.uk/#linked-data) and Price Paid Data
(https://landregistry.data.gov.uk/app/ppd) 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
(https://customerhelp.landregistry.gov.uk/changeasalesrecordwebform) 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 (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-
licence/version/3/).

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
(http://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/land-registry/about/complaints-procedure). If you wish to
report or complain about a discrepancy in the price paid information, complete our change a
sales record form (https://customerhelp.landregistry.gov.uk/changeasalesrecordwebform). 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 1998 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 (https://ico.org.uk).

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.
Monthly files for previous months

To access previous monthly files, contact

Data Services Team

HM Land Registry

Rosebrae Court

Woodside Ferry Approach

Birkenhead

Merseyside

CH41 6DU
Email data.services@mail.landregistry.gov.uk
Contact form https://customerhelp.l...
(https://customerhelp.landregistry.gov.uk/commercialserviceswebform)

Telephone 0300 006 0478

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
(https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/privacy-impact-assessment-review-price-paid-data).

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 (https://landregistry.data.gov.uk/app/ppd)

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 (https://customerhelp.landregistry.gov.uk/changeasalesrecordwebform).

Licences
Find out more about licences:

Open Government Licence (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-

licence/version/3/)
Publishing or making use of our data (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/price-
paid-data-downloads#when-using-or-publishing-our-price-paid-data)
Privacy statement (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/land-registry/about/personal-
information-charter)

Published 14 August 2014

Last updated 14 June 2016

+ show all updates

1. 14 June 2016
Mention of House Price Index (HPI) information removed, due to new UK HPI being
launched on 14 June.
2. 3 May 2016
Added link to information about our new "Standard Reports" tool.
3. 30 March 2016
 "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.
4. 28 October 2015
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.
5. 14 August 2014
First published.

Related content

HM Land Registry: Transaction Data (/guidance/hm-land-registry-transaction-data)

Price Paid Data (/government/statistical-data-sets/price-paid-data-downloads)
Property transactions in the UK (/government/collections/property-transactions-in-the-uk)
Price Paid Data: Standard reports (/guidance/price-paid-data-standard-reports)
HM Land Registry: Price Paid Data (/government/collections/price-paid-data)

Collection

HM Land Registry: Price Paid Data (/government/collections/price-paid-data)

Explore the topic

Housing and communities (/housing-local-and-community/housing-and-communities)
Land Registration Data (/housing-local-and-community/land-registration-data)

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v3.0, except where otherwise stated © Crown copyright