Methodology

UK House Prices turns official HM Land Registry Price Paid Data into searchable sold price summaries by postcode, street, town and district. This page explains the data source, calculation rules and limitations behind the figures shown across the site.

Data source

Sold price records are sourced from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data for England and Wales. The source includes residential property sales dating back to January 1995 and is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. New records are normally released monthly by HM Land Registry.

Source reference: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data.

Transaction scope

HM Land Registry Price Paid Data covers residential property sales in England and Wales only. Commercial transactions, land sales, and transfers between related parties are not part of this dataset. Scotland and Northern Ireland operate separate land registries and are not included.

Standard transactions (Category A)

Full market value sales between unrelated parties — the majority of records in the dataset. They are retained alongside Category B records after the ETL accepts a row whose separate HMLR record-status field is A and whose price passes the validity limits.

Non-standard transactions (Category B)

Includes right-to-buy sales, repossessions, transfers at below-market value (such as gifts or inherited transfers), and buy-to-let acquisitions with sitting tenants. These records are not globally removed by the ETL, so concentrations can affect area averages. Postcode pages use available property-type and transaction-value signals to show a warning where the local sample may be non-standard.

New builds

New build sales are included in the dataset and are flagged by HMLR. New builds typically command a premium over comparable second-hand properties in the same postcode. Where new build activity is high, the area average may sit above the resale market level.

Tenure: leasehold vs freehold

Each transaction in the source data carries a leasehold or freehold designation. Leasehold properties — particularly flats and purpose-built apartments — often have lower sale prices than equivalent freehold houses. Area averages combine both tenure types; the property type breakdown shown on town and district pages reflects this mix.

Cleaning and grouping

Record selection

The clean dataset keeps HMLR rows whose record-status field is A and whose price is greater than zero and below £100 million. The initial build removes duplicate rows, while monthly updates reject transaction IDs already held. The ETL retains both PPD Category A and Category B records and preserves the source new-build flag; it does not trim local outliers.

Location normalisation

Postcodes are normalised to uppercase outward and inward code format. Street, town and district URLs use canonical lowercase slugs while page headings retain readable place names.

Record aggregation

Records are grouped by postcode, street and town, then summarised with transaction count, first and latest sale dates, average price, median price and active years.

Duplicate handling

Canonical postcode and place keys are used to avoid duplicate pages from spacing, case or punctuation variants in source data and URLs.

Low-sample handling

Pages with real transactions remain indexable and show a limited-data notice below 20 transactions. The postcode and street sitemap layers use thresholds of at least 10 transactions and two active years; only empty pages are marked noindex.

Price calculations

The average price is the arithmetic mean of all retained sale prices in the selected area. The median price is the middle sale price after sorting the same retained records. Neither statistic is adjusted by removing local outliers; the median is provided because it is less sensitive to unusually high or low values.

Trend charts use annual aggregated sold price data. For postcode pages, yearly trend charts are shown at postcode district level where needed to keep samples more reliable than individual full postcode sales.

The five-year percentage shown on postcode, street, town and district summaries compares two equal 12-month windows: the latest 12 months ending at that entity's latest recorded sale, and the 12 months ending five years earlier. If the earlier window has no usable average, the trend is omitted rather than estimated. Chart tables may also show annual aggregates.

Limitations

These are historical sold prices, not valuations. A registered sale price reflects what a buyer and seller agreed on a specific date — it is not a current market valuation, asking price, or forecast.
Registration lag: Land Registry processing typically adds 4–8 weeks between completion and publication. The most recent months in any trend chart may be incomplete.
Scotland and Northern Ireland are outside HM Land Registry coverage.
Category B transactions (right-to-buy, repossessions, below-market-value transfers) are retained rather than globally removed. High concentrations, unusual property types or very low-value transactions can shift a local average; treat the median and the transaction list as additional context.
Leasehold and freehold properties are combined in area averages. Short-lease leaseholds in particular can sell at a significant discount to market rate.
Local interpretation should account for property type, condition, floor level (for flats), exact location within a postcode, and any extensions or renovations since the last recorded sale.

Data licensing

HM Land Registry Price Paid Data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data — the official register of residential property transactions in England and Wales.

Important disclaimer

This site provides historical sold price statistics derived from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data. The figures shown are not valuations, not forecasts and not investment advice. Past sale prices do not guarantee future values. Always seek independent professional advice before making property or financial decisions.

Read more about who maintains this site and how to get in touch on the About page.