What the sold-price record can (and can't) tell you
The official record is powerful — but it has deliberate gaps. Knowing them makes you a sharper buyer.
Every recorded home sale in England and Wales sits in HM Land Registry’s Price Paid Data. It’s the most authoritative source there is — but it’s a record of what happened, not a running commentary on the market.
What it contains
For each sale: the price, the date, the postcode and address, the property type, whether it was a new build, and whether it was freehold or leasehold. That last flag is more useful than it looks — leasehold flats and freehold houses often move differently, and we can separate them when we build a trend.
What it doesn’t
There are no asking prices and no “days on market”, because those never reach the register. Anyone showing you those figures alongside sold prices is blending in a different, less reliable source. Where a number can’t be derived from the official record, we’d rather say so than estimate it.
Being clear about the gaps is part of the method. It’s also what lets you trust the figures that are here. See exactly how we calculate everything on our methodology page.