GeoPlace Welcomes Call for UPRN to Revolutionise the UK Property Market

The open letter, addressed to the Housing Minister and signed by key figures in the property industry, outlines a clear path for how the UPRN can transform the property market. The coalition's call to action highlights the vital role the UPRN can play in enabling the UK property sector to become more efficient, safer, and consumer friendly.

The signatories to the letter call on the Government to take decisive action to adopt and implement the UPRN across the residential property market to drive benefits for both the public and private sectors, as well as consumers.

This letter follows a similar call from the residential property sector in 2021 and some progress has been made with the inclusion of UPRNs in more property related databases such as the tall buildings register and organisations such as the National House Building Council (NHBC) are working towards implementation. GeoPlace believes that further and more widespread adoption of the UPRN offers transformative opportunities for the property market, including:

• Increased market transparency and efficiency, allowing faster, more reliable property transactions
• Enhanced building safety and improved tenant protection, with the ability to track and enforce housing standards
• Stronger regulatory enforcement, ensuring housing legislation is more effectively applied
• Supporting the drive to net zero by providing accurate data on properties' energy usage, enabling targeted retrofitting and sustainability initiatives to reduce carbon emissions across the UK’s housing stock
• Better insights into accessibility and inclusion, enabling more targeted interventions to address housing inequalities.

"The UPRN will drive efficiency across buying, selling, and letting, while also playing a key role in supporting the Government's broader housing and regulatory objectives".

GeoPlace Managing Director, Nick Chapallaz, said: “We strongly support this call from leaders in the property sector to place the UPRN at the core of the UK residential property market. The UPRN is a critical tool that underpins the accuracy and reliability of property and land data across the country. Widespread adoption combined with best practices, will not only streamline the home buying and selling process, but also accelerate the Government's housebuilding initiatives and instil greater confidence throughout the sector.”

Nick continued: “Its adoption cannot come soon enough. The UPRN will drive efficiency across buying, selling, and letting, while also playing a key role in supporting the Government's broader housing and regulatory objectives. Moreover, the benefits extend beyond the property sector—positively impacting policymaking, process improvements, and decision-making in both government and commerce. This is precisely why the UPRN has been made open and mandated by the Central Digital & Data Office as the public sector standard for identifying geographic locations.”

As the UK’s definitive source of address and street data, GeoPlace has long championed the use of the UPRN as the key identifier for properties. Its work, alongside local authorities and partners across the public and private sectors, has shown that consistent use of the UPRN unlocks significant benefits by providing a single, authoritative reference for every property in the country.

GeoPlace stands ready to support the Government and the property industry in making this vision a reality. The mass adoption of the UPRN is not just a technical improvement—it represents a foundational shift towards a smarter, more data-driven property market that benefits everyone.

UPRNs are open data, covered by the Open Government Licence and are available from Ordnance Survey as an API.

Notes

About the UPRN

The Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) and Unique Street Reference Number (USRN) are the unique identifiers for every addressable location and street in Great Britain.

They are created by local authorities that have a statutory authority to name and number every street and property and Ordnance Survey, which identifies objects in the landscape that would otherwise not have an address. GeoPlace, the organisation that connect the two bodies, issues ranges of UPRNs to local authorities, and provides unparalleled expertise in managing and optimising the use of UPRNs in key sectors and a diverse range of businesses.

All of OS’s location data is available to market through a range of products and services accessed via the OS Data Hub – which provides access to the data through both APIs and downloads.

About GeoPlace

GeoPlace LLP is a public sector limited liability partnership between the Local Government Association (LGA) and Ordnance Survey (OS).

GeoPlace is a world class expert in address and street information management, working internationally as well as in the UK to help our partners and customers maximise the value of their spatial information for better decision making.

GeoPlace maintains a national infrastructure that supports the address and street information needs of the public and private sectors. Its work relies heavily on close working relationships with every local authority in England and Wales. This relationship has been developed over 20 years, to build the National Address Gazetteer infrastructure and National Street Gazetteer. OS develops the range of AddressBase products from the National Address Gazetteer and OS MasterMap Highways Network from the NSG. Both datasets underpin efficient and effective services, bringing direct service delivery benefits to users.

These unique reference numbers link datasets together and share information with other organisations who also use them. They provide a comprehensive, complete and consistent identifier throughout a property's life cycle – from planning permission or street naming through to demolition.

See https://www.geoplace.co.uk