Why This Matters
One Dataset, Several Different Answers
There is only one record of what a property in England or Wales actually sold for: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data. It records the price stated in the transfer deed for every registered sale since January 1995, is published free under the Open Government Licence, and is updated monthly. Every site that shows you a sold price is working from it.
What differs is the packaging. Property portals such as Rightmove and Zoopla present the same figures inside a far friendlier interface and, where the property was marketed on their site, can pair a sale with the listing photographs, floor plan and description from that campaign - material Land Registry has never held. In exchange, portal listings lag the official data by however long their own refresh cycle takes, and older records are not always kept on show.
So when two sites disagree, it is rarely because one is wrong. It is usually timing, address matching, or the fact that you are comparing a registered sale price against an automated estimate. The sections below set out which source to use for which question - and where a report from us does, and does not, add anything.
earliest sales recorded in Price Paid Data
HM Land Registry
how often Price Paid Data is republished
HM Land Registry
common gap between completion and a sale appearing
HMLR registration timescales
Price Paid Data is open data under the Open Government Licence
HM Land Registry
Five reasons two sites show different figures
Registration lag
A sale enters Price Paid Data only once HM Land Registry has registered the transfer - commonly two to three months after completion, and longer for complex or leasehold titles. Until then no source can show it.
New-build plot numbering
New homes are often sold and registered against a plot number before the street address is finalised. The sale can therefore appear under an address that does not match the one you are searching, or take longer to line up.
Transfers that are not open-market sales
Transfers between family members, transfers on divorce or death, Right to Buy discounts, shared ownership and part-exchange purchases are all recorded, but the figure was never a price agreed between a willing buyer and seller.
What the price paid does and does not include
The recorded figure is the consideration stated in the transfer deed. Separate payments for carpets, curtains, white goods or other fixtures can sit outside it, and new-build incentives can flatter a headline price.
Estimates are not sale prices
Some sites publish an automated valuation estimate alongside sold prices. That is a model output, not a recorded transaction. Compare registered sale against registered sale, never against an estimate.
Address matching
Flats, converted houses and properties with names rather than numbers are matched to the dataset differently by different systems, so a sale can surface on one site and not another.
Source By Source
Which Source to Use for What
Each of these is good at something different. None of them is a substitute for the others, and for the raw sale price you never need to pay anybody.
HM Land Registry Price Paid Data
The original record and the source everyone else draws from. Free, official, England and Wales, January 1995 onwards, updated monthly. Gives price paid, sale date, property type, tenure and a new-build flag. No photographs, no descriptions, no names.
Property portals (Rightmove, Zoopla and others)
Legitimate and often the quickest way to browse sold prices by postcode. Their real advantage is the listing archive: where a property was marketed through them, the photographs, floor plan and description from that sale may still be published alongside the price. Refresh cycles vary and older records are not always retained.
HM Land Registry title register (£11)
The only reliable route to the current registered owner, the exact tenure, and any charges or restrictions on the title. Buy it direct from HM Land Registry. Sold price data will never give you a name, and neither will we.
The local authority planning portal
Free, and the one place where past drawings, elevations and site photographs are public documents. Useful for understanding what has been altered, extended or refused - and occasionally for seeing what a property looked like years ago.
The estate agent who sold it
Often the only source for why a property sold when it did, how long it sat on the market, and whether the sale fell through first. Agents sometimes keep older particulars on file. None of this appears in any dataset.
HouseDossier
The same official Land Registry price data, placed next to the risk and planning context that a price on its own cannot tell you: flood risk, ground stability, radon, nearby planning applications, EPC, council tax band and stamp duty. We do not show listing photos or descriptions.
Side by side
| What you want | HM Land Registry | Property portals | HouseDossier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price paid and sale date | Yes - the original record | Yes - from the same dataset | Yes - from the same dataset |
| Cost | Free | Free | From £9.95 |
| Coverage | England and Wales, 1995 onwards | England and Wales; older records not always shown | England and Wales, 1995 onwards |
| Listing photos and description | Never held | Where marketed on that site | Not included |
| Comparable sales nearby | Yes - search by postcode | Yes | Yes - included in the report |
| Owner names | Not in Price Paid Data | No | No - title register, £3, is the route |
| Flood, ground and planning context | Not part of the sold price record | Not part of the sold price record | Yes - the reason the report exists |
| How current | Republished monthly | Varies by site | Queried from the Land Registry open data API, refreshed daily |
Rightmove and Zoopla are independent property portals. HouseDossier is not affiliated with either, does not index their listings, and does not display their content.
What no sold price source can tell you
- The condition the property was in at the time of the sale
- Why it sold - probate, repossession, divorce, relocation or a survey finding
- Whether the price reflected a below-market arrangement between family members
- How long it was on the market, or whether an earlier sale fell through
- Who bought or sold it - Price Paid Data records the transaction, not the parties
A low sale price is a question, not an answer. The useful next step is to look at what surrounds the property - flood and ground risk, nearby planning activity, the EPC and the construction age band - which is the part we can help with.
How It Works
How to Check a Sold Price Properly
Start with the official record - it is free
Search HM Land Registry Price Paid Data for the postcode. That gives you the price paid, the sale date, the property type, the tenure and whether it was a new build. If a recent sale is missing, it almost certainly has not been registered yet rather than never happened.
Use a portal for the marketing detail
If you want to know what the property looked like and how it was described when it last sold, a portal listing archive is the place to look - Land Registry has never held photographs or descriptions. Where the listing is gone, try the selling agent or the council planning portal for drawings and site photographs.
Put the price in context before you offer
A price only means something next to what surrounds it. Our report reads the same Land Registry data and sets it beside flood risk, ground stability, nearby planning applications, the EPC, the council tax band and the stamp duty you would pay. For a single address, start on our sold house prices page.
Looking up one specific address? This page is about choosing between sources. If you already know the property you care about, our sold house prices lookup goes straight to the sale history for that address, with a free preview before you pay anything.
Report Preview
What a HouseDossier Report Adds to the Price
Sale History & Surrounding Risk
England and Wales · official sources only
- Sale history for the address from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, 1995 onwards
- Comparable sales nearby from the same official dataset
- Flood risk: rivers and sea, plus surface water (Environment Agency)
- Ground risk: subsidence, shrink-swell clay, coal mining, radon band, landfill and bedrock
- Planning applications recorded near the property
- EPC: rating, scores, floor area, construction age band and estimated energy costs
- Council tax band and a Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) calculation
- Broadband and mobile coverage (Ofcom), schools (Ofsted), crime (police.uk), air quality
- Full Dossier: ceiling price analysis - the highest sales within a quarter, half and one mile
- Full Dossier: listed building and heritage status, plus an AI summary with red flag alerts
What we do not include - stated plainly
- No automated valuation or estimate of what the property is worth today
- No rental yield estimate
- No previous owner names - the title register from HM Land Registry, £3, is the route to the current owner
- No listing photographs, floor plans or marketing descriptions from any portal
- No historic Ordnance Survey maps, title deeds or title register copies
- No exact build year - the EPC gives a construction age band, such as 1930-1949
- No Scotland or Northern Ireland coverage
Pricing
Transparent, One-Off Pricing
The raw sold price is free from HM Land Registry and from the portals, and we would rather you knew that. You are paying us for the risk and planning context around it, gathered in one place.
Quick Check
- Sale history from 1995 and comparable sales
- Flood risk and ground risk checks
- Nearby planning applications
- EPC, council tax band and SDLT
Full Dossier
- Everything in Quick Check
- Ceiling price analysis (¼, ½ and 1 mile)
- Listed building and heritage status
- AI summary with red flag alerts
- Construction age band and EPC history
FAQ
Sold Price Sources - Frequently Asked Questions
Do Rightmove and Zoopla use Land Registry data for sold prices?
Why do Rightmove and Zoopla show different sold prices for the same house?
How do I check sold house prices by postcode for free?
Where can I see sold house descriptions and listing photos?
How can I see old sale images of a property?
Why is a recent sale missing from the sold price data?
Does sold price data show who owned the property?
Does any of this cover Scotland or Northern Ireland?
Got the Price? Get the Context
The price is free. What surrounds it is the part worth checking.
Same official Land Registry data, set beside flood risk, ground stability, planning activity and the EPC.
Try a postcode (SW1A 2AA) or “12 SW1A 2AA”. Covers England and Wales.
Free preview included. Quick Check £9.95, Full Dossier £19.95.