Frequent questions

HouseMetric was built to make comprehensive housing intelligence accessible to everyone—eliminating the steep costs typical of legacy industry platforms. Since 2021, the platform has grown into a leading resource for consolidated public records, property market analytics, and thematic mapping across England and Wales. Core search features remain completely free, supported by optional plans for advanced data access and compute-heavy analytical tools.

Internal area data is primarily taken from a property's Energy Performance Certificate (EPC). Sometimes there are multiple EPC inspections, if you navigate to the individual property page you'll be able to see the different data reported from each of these EPC visits. We try to show the property size given in the most recent EPC. Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Price paid data comes from HM Land Registry data Crown copyright and database right 2026. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL). However the Price Paid Data also contains address data processed against Ordnance Survey's AddressBase Premium product, which incorporates Royal Mail's PAF Address Data. Royal Mail and Ordnance Survey permit the display of Address Data in the Price Paid Data for the purpose of providing residential property price information services. However the OGL does not cover the use of these third party rights.

If you see an error in the Land Registry data you can report it to Land Registry via: https://customerhelp.landregistry.gov.uk/changeasalesrecordwebform/ and once they put out the change this website will automatically update.

Plot outlines are also from Land Registy. They are only indicative of the location and approximate size and shape of Land Registry registered freehold land. They have no legal status. The polygons (including the associated geometry, namely x, y co-ordinates) are subject to Crown copyright and database rights 2026 Ordnance Survey.

The Price Paid Data from Land Registry is typically updated on a monthly basis. HouseMetric is often the first website to update the Land Registry data, but not always. It was last updated on 1st November 2026 and contains sales up to the end of September 2026. Sales continue to be added after the month they complete, so the latest months are incomplete. Why the latest months look low.

Dataset	Approximate coverage	Last updated
Land Registry sold prices	32 million sales, through September 2026	1st November 2026
EPC floor-area records	30 million certificates	1st November 2026
Freehold boundaries	24 million outlines	31st October 2026
Company ownership titles	4.4 million titles	7th October 2026
Inflation (CPIH)	Monthly index, January 1988 to September 2026	1st November 2026

A house can be sold today and only written down months later. The newest months look smaller because some sales are still missing.

The table looks at the last six months. It compares each one with the same month in the three years before, once those years have had time to fill up.

Sale month	Sales so far	Usual sales for that month	How full
April 2026	54,443	56,439	96%
May 2026	53,113	66,038	80%
June 2026	51,650	78,872	65%
July 2026	55,071	82,102	67%
August 2026	45,786	85,705	53%
September 2026	20,200	79,874	25%

April 2026 is 96% full compared with a normal April. September 2026 is 25% full, because many of those sales have not been written down yet.

Inspection date

The date that the inspection was actually carried out by the energy assessor

Reason for EPC

Type of transaction that triggered EPC. For example, one of: marketed sale; non-marketed sale; new-dwelling; rental; not sale or rental; assessment for Green Deal; following Green Deal; FIT application; none of the above; RHI application; ECO assessment. Where the reason for the assessment is unknown by the energy assessor the transaction type will be recorded as 'none of the above'. Transaction types may be changed over time.

Tenure

Describes the tenure type of the property. One of: Owner-occupied; Rented (social); Rented (private) Rented (social) Rented (private) Owner-occupied NA (new build)

Habitable rooms

Habitable rooms include any living room, sitting room, dining room, bedroom, study and similar; and also a non-separated conservatory. A kitchen/diner having a discrete seating area (with space for a table and four chairs) also counts as a habitable room. A non-separated conservatory adds to the habitable room count if it has an internal quality door between it and the dwelling. Excluded from the room count are any room used solely as a kitchen, utility room, bathroom, cloakroom, en-suite accommodation and similar and any hallway, stairs or landing; and also any room not having a window.

Year built

Age band when building part constructed. England & Wales only. Typically one of: before 1900; 1900-1929; 1930-1949; 1950-1966; 1967-1975; 1976-1982; 1983-1990; 1991-1995; 1996-2002; 2003-2006; 2007-2011; 2012 onwards.

Area

The total useful floor area is the total of all enclosed spaces measured to the internal face of the external walls, i.e. the gross floor area as measured in accordance with the guidance issued from time to time by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors or by a body replacing that institution. (m²)

EPC Grade

Current energy rating converted into a linear 'A to G' rating (where A is the most energy efficient and G is the least energy efficient)

The heatmap of property prices uses Land Registry INSPIRE Index Polygons, an open source dataset. This information is subject to Crown copyright and database rights and is reproduced with the permission of HM Land Registry. The polygons (including the associated geometry, namely x, y co-ordinates) are subject to Crown copyright and database rights Ordnance Survey 100026316. Here is a link to the full conditions of use

Average price heatmap:
The heatmap of property prices shows current estimated values of specific properties. Plot areas are shaded by an estimate of current value. The estimate uses past sales in the area. It does not allow for extensions, condition, or other changes since the last sale. At wider zoom levels, plots are grouped and coloured by the middle value of the group. This layer is not adjusted for property size, so larger homes usually appear more expensive. It answers how much an average home costs in an area.
Price per square metre heatmap:
This layer uses the same method, with price per square metre instead of current value. The price is adjusted for the size of the home, so smaller homes are not treated as cheaper simply because they are smaller. It has the same limitation: the estimate does not allow for extensions, condition, or other changes since the last sale. This map shows where areas are most expensive on a £ per square metre basis.

Annual growth is the compound annual growth rate. You can think of it as the annual growth rate needed to grow the initial purchase price to the eventual selling price. More technically, it is the rate of return that would be required for an investment to grow from its beginning balance to its ending balance, assuming it had grown at a steady rate on an annually compounded basis.

Here is the formula used to calculate this:

CAGR = (Final price / Starting price) ^ (1/time in years) - 1

After inflation is the annual growth rate after adjusting for inflation. HouseMetric uses the official CPIH measure for inflation. CPIH is published as a monthly series, so the adjustment uses the months of the purchase and the sale. The inflation CAGR is calculated with the formula above, then turned into a real annual growth rate. The formula is:

Inflation adjusted rate = (1 + Nominal CAGR) / (1 + Inflation CAGR) - 1

Bear in mind that neither of these consider the value of living in the property or the upkeep costs for the period in question.

Today's value is an estimate of what the price paid at the time of sale would be worth in today's money, based on how house prices have moved since the transaction. It is calculated by indexing the original price forward using a property specific house price index.

This is not a valuation of the property itself — it does not account for any improvements, extensions or changes in condition since the sale. It also does not take into account whether the sale price was a good or a bad deal. It simply answers the question: if house prices for this type of property in this area have risen (or fallen) by X% since this sale, what would the original price equate to today?

Implied valuation is a simple range estimate on an individual property page. It multiplies the property's internal floor area (from the latest EPC) by the lower and upper quartile £ per square metre for recent sales in the same postcode sector.

Postcode sector is the full postcode without the last two letters — for example, KT20 5AB, KT20 5CD and KT20 5EF all fall in sector KT20 5. HouseMetric uses the sector as the local area unit for market statistics: it is small enough to reflect genuine local price differences, but large enough to include enough sales for meaningful quartile calculations.

The £ per sqm quartiles are the 25th and 75th centiles of sales in the last two years in that sector — the same figures used when we say homes in the area are selling for between £X and £Y per sqm. The lower bound is internal area × 25th centile £/sqm; the upper bound is internal area × 75th centile £/sqm.

This is not a formal valuation. It does not adjust for condition, curb appeal or other qualitative characteristics. It only answers: if this home were priced like the middle half of recent sales in the sector, what total price range might that imply? Use it as context only. For a more accurate valuation, pick your own comparable sales using the Advanced search tool, add them to a shortlist, then export a valuation report.