Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) are the golden key to unlocking value at every stage of the property chain and provide the answers to many of the questions that have previously increased risk and cost in the property sector.
Unlocking value for the property sector
What difference will Unique Property Reference Number (UPRNs) make to the way we work, the sector, and the future for landlords and tenants?
“The widespread use of a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) has the potential to deliver many benefits across the residential property market. Importantly, a UPRN can offer tenants a greater level of protection against rogue landlords and help to reduce consumer fraud when buying or renting a home”.
National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agents Team (NTSELAT)
Chaired by Dan Hughes, Founder of Alpha Property, the speakers included:
- Nick Chapallaz, Managing Director, GeoPlace
- Richard Duffield, Head of Customer Insights, GeoPlace
- Theresa Wallace, Chair, The Lettings Industry Council (TLIC)
- Andrew Bulmer, CEO, Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM)
- Lawrence Hopper, Deputy Director, Digital Policy, Ministry of Housing, Local Government and Communities (MHCLG)
- Andrew Knight, Data & Tech, Thought Leadership & Analysis, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
Following the webinar, please see:
- Video of the presentations
- Report from the webinar, which also contains useful links
- Responses to the question-and-answer session
- IRPM White Paper: The UPRN, what’s in a number
- Article published in UKAuthority
Moving forwards
In January 2021, leading residential property bodies signed an open letter to the Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) highlighting the potential benefits from widely adopted Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs).
Since then, Government has clearly signposted that UPRNs are an essential tool for the private and social sector. The post-pandemic landscape is starting to take shape, and the housing and property sector must learn how to use UPRNs best to benefit and ‘build back better’.
“When we think about the housing market, we know that the current buying and selling process is besieged by long and arduous and byzantine processes and inefficiencies. The system even today is far too complicated, is far too long and it needs to be made easier. UPRNs can help change it for the better because of the wealth of data that goes alongside them. With UPRNs, the processes can be streamlined. Information like the number of previous owners, plot size, the boundaries that can all be shared digitally all with the touch of a key helping to speed the whole house buying process along.”
Rt. Hon. Christopher Pincher MP, Minister for Housing
Find out how to make best use of them in your organisation.
Further information
Unique Property Reference Numbers are unique references for every addressable location in Great Britain. Unlike postcodes, UPRNs identify properties at an individual level, and they can connect databases that hold non-property related data – things like information about energy performance certificates, risk and safety information, and reduce fraud.
- Find out more about UPRNs here
- See the view from The Letting Industry Council
- Check out the open letter and FAQs on the IRPM’s website
- Watch a video from Theresa Wallace
- Review the Housing Minister’s presentation at the GeoPlace conference
- Check out the ‘Revolutionising the housing, planning and property sector’ session at the GeoPlace conference
- Read the ‘Why we should be encouraging UPRN adoption’ report from RICS
- See the UPRN in Property pages on the GeoPlace website
- Listen to The Landlord and Lawyer podcast discussing UPRNs with Kate Faulkner
- Read about the partnership between the UK PropTech Association and Ordnance Survey to drive digital transformation in the property industry
- See the view of the Real Estate Data Foundation
