general
Land Registry sold prices: what Price Paid Data covers
Land Registry sold prices explained: what Price Paid Data includes, what it leaves out, why a recent sale may be missing and how often it updates.
- 4 min read
- Last reviewed 4 November 2026
- By Your Property Check team
Key answer
Part 1 of 6
What Price Paid Data is
Price Paid Data is the official record of property sales in England and Wales that have been lodged with HM Land Registry. GOV.UK describes it as tracking property sales submitted to HM Land Registry for registration, and says the data is collected at the time a transaction is registered. Each record holds the price paid, the postcode and address fields and the property type. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate registers, so they are not in this dataset. We read the GOV.UK pages on 4 November 2026.
The data is released under the Open Government Licence, which permits commercial and non-commercial use. That is why many websites, including our sold prices tool, can show it. The licence requires attribution to HM Land Registry.
Part 2 of 6
Category A, Category B and what is left out
Each record carries a category code. GOV.UK defines them, and lists what the dataset excludes:
| Type of sale | What GOV.UK says | In the data? |
|---|---|---|
| Category A | Standard entry: a single residential property sold for value | Yes |
| Category B | Additional entry: repossessions and power of sale transfers, buy-to-lets, transfers to non-private individuals, and property type Other | Yes, not separately identified |
| Sale not lodged with HM Land Registry | Excluded | No |
| Sale not for value, such as a gift | Excluded | No |
| Right to Buy sale at a discount, or transfer subject to an existing mortgage | Excluded as a non-value transfer | No |
| Price that includes VAT | The transaction is excluded | No |
| Lease of seven years or less | Not recorded | No |
GOV.UK adds that Category B does not separately identify the transaction types it lists, so you cannot tell from the code alone whether a record is a repossession or a buy-to-let. If you want to compare like with like, treat Category A as the cleanest set of ordinary residential sales.
Part 3 of 6
Why a sale may be missing
The most common reason is timing. GOV.UK says the interval between a sale and its registration typically ranges between 2 weeks and 2 months, and occasionally longer. It also says data for the two most recent months is incomplete and does not give an indication of final monthly volumes. So a house that completed last week will not usually be there yet, and a quiet most recent month may only reflect registrations still to come.
Other reasons are in the table above. A transfer between family members, a gift, or a sale that was never lodged will not appear. A new build may take longer: the UK House Price Index page says it takes time for transactions to be processed, that new builds take longer than existing homes, and that it suppresses the numbers of verified sales for new builds for the most recent two months.
Part 4 of 6
How often it updates
The data set page says HM Land Registry updates the data on the 20th working day of each month. Each release includes data received during the month, plus updates to earlier releases. The monthly file marks each row as added, changed or deleted, so a record you saw last month can later be corrected or removed. The UK House Price Index is published monthly too. At the time of checking, its next release was dated 18 November 2026.
Part 5 of 6
Can you trust the price shown?
The price is what was recorded at registration, so it is a good guide to what a property sold for. It is not a valuation of today. GOV.UK says HM Land Registry tries to make its public data as accurate as possible but cannot guarantee it is free from errors, and that property type is recorded at registration, so it may differ from the home's characteristics now. Errors can be reported through HM Land Registry's change a sales record form.
Three habits help when you read sold prices:
- Compare the same property type, and the same street or postcode area, over the same period.
- Look at several sales rather than one, because individual prices vary with condition, size and negotiation.
- Check the date. An older sale tells you less about today's market than a recent one.
For the wider picture, our guide to a Land Registry search explains what else the register holds, and our article on how much a house is worth by postcode shows how sold prices feed an estimate. We do not turn sold prices into a single magic number, because the data cannot support one.
Part 6 of 6
What this means if you are selling
Sold prices are one of the evidence points a seller can use, alongside agent valuations and current asking prices. They are historic, so they lag the market a little, and they say nothing about the condition of your home. This page is general information, not advice.
Our take
Sold prices are strong evidence, but they lag
Price Paid Data is the most reliable record of what homes actually sold for, but it is historic. A sale can take 2 weeks to 2 months to appear, and it says nothing about condition. We think sellers should use it alongside agent valuations and asking prices, not instead of them.
That is how Your Property Check uses it. Our sold prices tool shows real Land Registry sold-price transactions for any postcode, and our free house valuation turns them into an honest value range with the comparable sales and the working shown.
Our opinion, drawn from the facts on this page: not advice and not a forecast. We earn from OfferCheck reports and from introducing sellers to cash buyers, so weigh it with that in mind (see our disclosure). We are not authorised or regulated by the FCA.
Questions, answered
Frequently asked questions
Why is my house sale not on Land Registry?
How often is Price Paid Data updated?
What is the difference between Category A and Category B?
Does Price Paid Data cover Scotland?
Can I use Price Paid Data on my own website?
Where this comes from
Sources
- GOV.UK: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data
- GOV.UK: About the Price Paid Data
- GOV.UK: UK House Price Index reports
Last reviewed 4 November 2026 by the Your Property Check team. This page is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own situation, speak to a conveyancing solicitor or another qualified professional.