Reviewed and updated: 17 October 2026. Original archive publication date retained.
There is no single property dataset that answers every question. Start by deciding whether you need evidence of an individual transaction, a market trend, an advertised opportunity or a legal interest in land. Those are different research tasks.
Registered prices and market trends
HM Land Registry’s Price Paid Data contains sale-price information for properties sold for value in England and Wales and submitted for registration. It is useful historical evidence, but a record’s absence is not proof that no transaction occurred.
The UK House Price Index uses sales data and statistical methods to measure price change. It provides context for a market rather than the precise value of a specific building.
Read the definitions
Check geography, reporting dates, coverage and exclusions before comparing figures. A local-authority average and a postcode sample may cover different places and property mixes. Revised estimates should not be confused with the first provisional release.
Paid research services may package information conveniently, but convenience does not remove the need to understand the underlying source. Check licences, update frequency and whether data can be exported before subscribing.
For every important decision, retain the source, date and assumptions. Avoid treating an asking price as a completed sale or a market index as a valuation. A small, well-documented set of appropriate sources is more useful than a large collection of unexplained numbers.