How to look up what a house sold for using HM Land Registry data
HM Land Registry publishes the price paid for residential sales in England and Wales, searchable free by address, street, postcode or area and going back to 1995. Each record shows the price on the transfer deed, the completion date, the property type and whether it was new-build, freehold or leasehold. Recent months are incomplete because registration takes time, and some sales are excluded. For trends in an area, use the UK House Price Index rather than averaging a handful of sales.
The short answer
GOV.UK's Search sold property prices page sends you to HM Land Registry's price paid data service . It covers England and Wales. For Scotland, GOV.UK points to ScotLIS , run by Registers of Scotland; for Northern Ireland, to Land and Property Services . The rest of this guide covers England and Wales.
Sources: Search sold property prices, price paid data service, ScotLIS, Land and Property Services
Step 1: search the price paid data
The search form lets you enter any of: building name or number, street, town or city, district, county, locality or postcode. You can narrow results by:
property type : detached, semi-detached, terraced, flat or maisonette, or other;
new build or not ;
estate type : freehold or leasehold;
transaction category : standard or additional;
price range and date range .
Start broad (a street and town) rather than with a full address, because spelling and numbering in the deed may differ from what you expect. Results can be downloaded as a spreadsheet, and the search can be saved as a link.
Step 2: read each record correctly
HM Land Registry's guidance How to access HM Land Registry Price Paid Data explains every field. The ones that matter most:
Price: the "sale price stated on the transfer deed". It does not include stamp duty or fees.
Date of transfer: the date the sale completed, not the date it was agreed.
Property type: D, S, T, F or O. End-of-terrace homes are counted as terraced, and bungalows are not identified separately.
Old/new: Y for a newly built property.
Postcode: the postcode at the time of the sale. If a postcode has since been reallocated, the old one remains.
Category: A for a standard sale at full market value; B for "additional" entries, which include repossessions, buy-to-lets where they can be identified by a mortgage, and transfers to non-private individuals such as companies. Category B does not say which of these a sale was.
Source: How to access HM Land Registry Price Paid Data
Step 3: know what is missing
Recent months are incomplete. The guidance says the gap between a sale and its registration "typically ranges between 2 weeks and 2 months", so "data for the two most recent months is therefore incomplete". A search showing few sales last month does not mean the market stopped.
Some sales are excluded. The dataset leaves out sales not lodged for registration, sales not "for value", Right to Buy sales at a discount, transfers of a share (for example on divorce), gifts, sales under compulsory purchase or court orders, and some sales where the deed price includes VAT.
Records change. Entries can be corrected or deleted in later monthly updates, so a figure you downloaded months ago may differ from today's.
Worked example: terraced homes in Bristol in 2025
On 13 October 2026 we searched the price paid data for the district "City of Bristol", property type terraced, category standard, with completion dates from 1 January to 31 December 2025, and downloaded all results. There were 2,635 sales. The median price was £378,000 and the mean £418,750. Prices ranged from £70,000 to £2.7 million, with 31 sales above £1 million.
Three lessons from this one search:
Median and mean differ. A small number of very expensive homes pulls the mean up by more than £40,000. For a "typical" price the median is usually the better figure; see median and mean .
The official index gives a different number. The UK House Price Index gave an average price for terraced homes in the City of Bristol of £383,538 in July 2026, and £352,262 for all property types, up 2.1% on a year earlier. The index is adjusted for the mix of homes sold and covers a different period, so it will not match a simple average of the raw sales.
Counts will rise. Late registrations keep arriving, so the 2025 total will be slightly higher if you run the same search later.
Source: UK House Price Index
Checking a claim about local house prices
"Prices on our street have doubled." Find the earlier and later sales of comparable homes, ideally the same property. Then adjust for inflation if the claim is about real value; see cash terms and real terms .
"Prices in our town are falling." Use the UK House Price Index for the local authority, compare the same month a year apart, and remember that the latest months are revised as more sales are registered.
"New-builds sell for far more." Filter on the new-build field and compare like with like (same type and area).
Bulk analysis. The price paid data downloads give every sale since 1995 as a single file, yearly files or monthly change files.
Source: price paid data downloads
Checklist
Right service for the nation (England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)
Completion date, not agreement date, used
Property type and new-build flag matched
Standard (A) and additional (B) sales separated
Last two months treated as incomplete
Median used for a typical price
UK House Price Index used for local trends
Official sources used in this guide
Sources: GOV.UK: Search sold property prices, HM Land Registry: price paid data search, HM Land Registry: about the price paid data, HM Land Registry: price paid data downloads, UK House Price Index, Registers of Scotland: ScotLIS, Land and Property Services: property search (Northern Ireland)
Questions
Is it free to find out what a house sold for?
Yes. Searching and downloading the price paid data costs nothing and the data is published under the Open Government Licence.
Source: GOV.UK: Search sold property prices
Why isn't a recent sale showing?
It may not be registered yet. Registration can take two months or more after completion.
Source: GOV.UK: Search sold property prices
Can I find out who owns the property?
Not from the price paid data, which has no names. Ownership is held on the title register, which is a separate paid service; see who owns a property .
Source: GOV.UK: Search sold property prices
Does the price include the buyer's stamp duty?
No. It is the price on the transfer deed. For the tax itself see stamp duty .