Signatories highlight the critical role that the UPRN can play in transforming the property market, enhancing transparency, improving market efficiency, and driving significant benefits for both the public and private sectors, as well as consumers.
What is the UPRN?
The most common way we identify a building is by its address, but this is often not captured consistently over time. This causes confusion, in particular for computers to match and compare data sets, and this will become an ever-greater challenge as we become more reliant on technology.
The UPRN is a unique identifier for every addressable location in the UK which allows organisations to make sure they are talking about the same building which means different bits of information can more easily be combined.
Next steps for Smart Data-driven home buying and selling
The UK Government has set out the actions it will take over the next two years to facilitate the data economy and drive growth and innovation in a range of sectors including the property market. By Summer 2024, the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) is expected to launch some pilot projects which will inform future digitalisation of the home buying and selling process.
Broad benefits of adoption
The real power of the UPRN is when it is widely adopted across the whole sector. For sales agents, the UPRN offers a faster, more efficient home buying and selling process, with a reduction in wasteful administration and duplicated work. In the lettings market, existing data, such as gas safety certificates and EICRs, can be linked to the UPRN, creating a permanent and complete record of a property’s history.
There will also be benefits from more effective enforcement of housing legislation, making it easier for authorities to crack down on poor practices and rogue operators, improving the safety of the sector for agents, property owners and consumers.
The UK Government will see increased revenue as a result of greater market activity and more transactions, and gain access to better data collection to support targeted interventions.
Property industry urges the use of the UPRN across the sector
Propertymark, along with other leading residential property bodies across the UK, have published an open letter to Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and Thalia Baldwin, Director of the Geospatial Commission highlighting the potential benefits from implementing a widely adopted Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN).
