Property Expert Nick Statman shares his insight on Property Data Sources for Investors.
Property investing is a game of numbers. There are so many facts, figures, and analytics to consider, and sometimes it can be overwhelming to understand it all. What makes it even more challenging is that there are so many different places to gather information, it can be hard to know which source is the most accurate. As we all know, just because it’s online doesn’t mean it’s true, which is why it’s so important to find a trustworthy source for property data.
If you’re not sure where to get accurate and up-to-date information, consider these three reliable property data sources:
Property Data
Residential property investors, agents, and developers use Propertydata.co.uk for all of their market data and analytical needs. The website makes it easy to identify yourself as an investor, developer, or agent and customize the information and resources that you see based on your position in the industry.
This website allows you to break property data down by the national level and the local level. With postcode tables, maps, and charts, you can visually see all of the essential data about a specific market. This dynamic website also gives agents and investors insights to yield hot spots, growth zones, and can even help break down costs for building new construction. The charts library lets you navigate hundreds of analytical charts based on house prices, market trends, and local economic data. These tools are helpful for investors who are looking for property data across the UK
If you are looking for more local data, the user-friendly search option lets you search for property data based on local prices, local rent prices, volume, growth, and local yields. You can also filter your search by types of investment properties, including repossessed lots, properties at auction, short leases, and new builds.
Other helpful tools this website has to offer include:
- Property Valuations
- Mortgage Finders
- Stamp Duty calculators
- Build cost calculators and
- Yield calculators
Property Data offers three monthly plans for agents and investors:
The Basic Plan costs £12 a month and gives you 12 credits per month to use to access main search features such as local data searches and property valuations. With the Basic plan, you are allowed to save three local searches and three plots.
The Pro Plan is the most popular plan and is £20 a month. With this plan you get 60 credits to use, 12 saved local searches and 12 saved plots. The Property Data sourcing feature contains a curated list of select situation properties that are divided into 11 regions. With the Pro Plan, you have access to one region of your choice and can pay extra for access to other areas.
The Max plan is £40 a month and gives you unlimited credits, unlimited local searches, unlimited plots, and access to all of the sourcing regions. You also can access the postcode table, download your results to PDF, and can add additional users for £15 a month. A free trial is available for each plan.
With Property Data, there are no limits during the 14-day free trial, and all plans have unrestricted access to local data throughout the UK.
HM Land Registry
HM Land Registry is part of the UK government site that provides no-frills information about local and national property data. This easy to use website allows users to search home prices, title deeds, and search for property ownership information. This site hosts a variety of property data resources, such as introductory guides to registering land, updating property records, and joint property ownership.
It also has an entire section devoted to the breakdown of any fees associated with property investing Scale 1 and Scale 2 fees, application fees, and detailed information about how and when to pay these fees.
The easy-to-use search features allow you to look up information in England or Wales, even if you don’t own it. You can use the address search feature to find the owner of a particular property, or look into it’s flood risk and see visuals of its perimeter and property lines. You will need an email address and a debit/credit card to perform basic searches. A basic search will tell you:
- The name of the current owner and the address of the property
- The price that was paid for the property. This information will not be available if they purchase the property before April of 2000, paid less than £100 for it, or if the HM land registry has agreed not to record the price
- The name of the lender for the property if there is a current mortgage being paid on the property
This basic search will cost you £3 inc VAT. The website’s “Find a property service” allows you to find and download “Copies of title registers, title plans and Flood Risk Indicator results for more than 20 million registered properties in England and Wales.” The cost for each of these searches is:
- £3 for a title register copy (details of a property)
- £3 for each title plan (plan of a property)
- £9.00 (excluding VAT) for each Flood Risk Indicator result
Rightmove
Rightmove is one of the UK’s most popular property buying, selling, and investing websites. It allows you to search property prices and market trends easily and pull up price comparison reports. Enter any information you have about a city or neighbourhood and instantly see current homes for sale and their most recent list prices. If you want information about a particular property, simply enter the address and Rightmove will give you all relevant data concerning the property.
By creating a Rightmove account, you can save your searches, create instant property alerts, and create/save your own search areas. Access to property data on Rightmove is always free.
A smart and successful investment starts with having all the right information on hand. There is a lot of information out there on the internet, so you have to be very selective. These sources have earned a reputation for providing current and accurate information about properties all across the UK and can be a helpful resource when buying or selling UK property.
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