Property industry groups urge Government to back UPRN adoption

Property industry groups that include Propertymark and The Property Ombudsman (TPO) urge Government to back UPRN adoption.

Agency industry groups are among a coalition of organisations that have backed an open letter to the Government calling for Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) to be adopted across the residential property market.

The idea behind a UPRN is that each home in the country has a unique number and can have ‘attached’ to that number the activities and characteristics that agents need to know about – for example, planning permission for when the property was first built and subsequent extensions, building regulations, council tax payments, utility providers, EPCs, health and safety checks on rental properties, and more.

The idea was backed by the previous Government and it opened the UPRN system – managed by a firm called GeoPlace, which has Ordnance Survey as its parent company in 2020.

But the system hasn’t been widely adopted.

Signatories to the letter, addressed to Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, suggests embedding the UPRN in public sector projects and supporting wider market adoption.

Theresa Wallace, chair of The Letting Industry Council, said:

“The UPRN is a vital piece of infrastructure that can drive significant improvements in the property market.

“We believe that its mass adoption will transform the letting industry helping Government, businesses and the consumer and we call on the Government to take immediate steps to help with the adoption of the UPRN.”

Dan Hughes, founder of the Real Estate Data Foundation, said:

“In Real Estate, both the public and private sector, has made real strides with data in recent years, but much more is needed.

“To realise the improvements in the housing market, better use of data is essential.

“Whether the home buying and selling process, the lettings market, planning or building safety – data must be placed at the heart of UK property policy and the UPRN is at the core of this.”

Kindly shared by Estate Agent Today