Sourcing stack
Official databases and commercial APIs for UK land
The UK has an extensive ecosystem of government datasets and paid aggregators for sourcing land, spotting buildings that could convert to homes, and mapping constraints. This viewer is the no-code map. The links below are what you plug in if you are building a custom deal tracker or CRM.
This map already calls planning.data.gov.uk (free) when you Identify a point, and the Place tab now also calls HM Land Registry Price Paid (free, England & Wales sold prices). It does not hold an API key for Land Registry polygons, Searchland, PropertyData or the other commercial products. Vendor coverage figures below are the suppliers’ claims.
What is free to use here
| Source | Cost | On this site |
|---|---|---|
| planning.data.gov.uk (MHCLG) | Free, no key | Already on the map — Identify, brownfield, flood, heritage, constraints |
| HM Land Registry Price Paid | Free, no key, OGL | Identify → Place, and the homes for sale page. Completed sales, not listings. |
| postcodes.io, ONS Census, Natural England ALC, NHLE, NBN Atlas, radon | Free / OGL | Already on the map |
| Rightmove / OnTheMarket / Zoopla | No public API we can legally scrape | Deep links on land and homes pages — not hosted listings |
| Use land and property data (polygons, CCOD, covenants) | Account + licence; National Polygon Service is paid | Not on this static map |
| Searchland, PropertyData, Propalt, Homedata, PlanningAPI UK, LandHawk | Paid API keys | Not integrated — for a custom CRM |
1. Official UK government databases and APIs
Primary sources. Accurate, but they do not by themselves give you a live “for sale” feed. You still match them to Rightmove / OnTheMarket / Zoopla, or to a commercial aggregator.
HM Land Registry on api.gov.uk (15 APIs)
That catalogue is not the free Price Paid feed. It is HMLR Business Gateway — SOAP/REST for conveyancers and channel partners (channelpartners@landregistry.gov.uk). This viewer cannot call them. After Identify, the Place tab lists all 15 so you can see what exists.
| API | What it is for | On this site |
|---|---|---|
| Application Enquiry | Progress of applications not yet completed | Listed only — needs BG account |
| Discharge Enquiry | Mortgage discharge status | Listed only |
| Estimated Completion Date | When HMLR expects to complete | Listed only |
| Land Charges Bankruptcy Search | Bankruptcy on the Land Charges register | Listed only |
| Land Charges Full Search | Full Land Charges register search | Listed only |
| Local Land Charges Search | LLC1-style local land charges | Listed only |
| Official Copy Document Availability (v1 / v2) | Whether an official copy can be issued | Listed only |
| Official Copy Title Known | Official copy of a known title | Listed only — paid per document |
| Official Search of Part | OS2 search with priority | Listed only |
| Official Search of Whole (with priority / with data) | OS1 search with priority | Listed only |
| Online Owner Verification | Confirm the registered proprietor | Listed only |
| Search by Property Description | Find a title from a description | Listed only |
| e-Document Registration Service | Lodge applications electronically | Listed only |
What is live here, as a list, is Price Paid Data (Identify → Place, and the homes for sale page). That is a separate Open Government Licence SPARQL/JSON API at landregistry.data.gov.uk — completed residential sales in England and Wales, not the current owner, not title polygons, not a for-sale board.
Public (non-API) searches anyone can run: Search land and property information (paid official copies in the browser) · Price Paid report builder · UK House Price Index.
Use land and property data (HM Land Registry)
Official REST API for programmatic access to Land Registry dataset download links — not a per-title search like the public “search property information” webpage. With an account, API key and the relevant licence you can pull:
- UK companies that own property in England and Wales (CCOD)
- Overseas companies that own property in England and Wales (OCOD)
- Restrictive covenants and registered leases
- National Polygon Service — exact digital title boundaries (licensed; not a free-for-all dump)
Base URL: https://use-land-property-data.service.gov.uk/api/v1/. Agree the dataset licence in the service first or the file endpoint returns nothing useful.
Use land and property data service · API overview · API technical documentation · Search a single title in the browser
Planning Data API (MHCLG)
planning.data.gov.uk is the ministry’s national planning platform for England. One interface, 100+ housing and planning datasets: brownfield land registers (prime home-building targets), conservation areas, listed buildings, Article 4, tree preservation, flood-related layers, and planning applications where the LPA has published them.
This Land Management Viewer uses that API for Identify. Coverage still varies by council. Application history is improving but LPAs are not all required to publish every application to the current spec — so a blank result is not proof of a clean site.
planning.data.gov.uk · API docs · Brownfield land dataset
2. Commercial land sourcing and site-buying APIs
These products stitch Land Registry, live listings (Rightmove / Zoopla class data), environmental layers and policy into something a developer CRM can query. They are paid. They are how most teams see what is actually on the market next to what is build-viable.
| Product | What teams use it for | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Searchland | Strategic land / SHLAA, planning applications, ownership, constraints, EPC/HMO — into a CRM or GIS. REST, bulk and GIS flavours. | searchland.co.uk/api |
| PropertyData | JSON API for feasibility, plot size, boundaries, £/sq ft, rental yields, sold prices and constraints. Also has a no-code web app. | propertydata.co.uk/api |
| Propalt | Vendor claim: 24+ sources (HMRC, OS and others) across ~29 million addresses. Listing/event history and “propensity to sell” style signals, including planning by UPRN. | docs.propalt.co.uk |
| Homedata | UPRN-keyed event chains, sold comparables, environment layers and planning search. Useful when you already have an address graph. | homedata.co.uk |
3. Planning and council tracker APIs
If the thesis is “buy land to build homes”, council application history is mandatory. A soils grade or a pretty listing photo does not replace it.
- PlanningAPI UK — unified lookup across 400+ councils; vendor claim ~2.4 million applications, plus conditions and s106/CIL. Aimed at development-finance underwriting. planningapi.uk
- LandHawk — vendor claim ~99% of UK council applications, updated hourly, with filters such as development size and consent status. landhawk.uk API
planning.data.gov.uk remains the public England backbone. These commercial trackers exist because council portals are fragmented and the national spec is still filling in.
Due-diligence checklist
| Objective | Best technical fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Official title boundaries and covenants | HM Land Registry — Use land and property data | Definitive legal source. National Polygon Service is licensed. |
| Council-backed house-building plots | planning.data.gov.uk (this map’s Identify) | Nationwide brownfield land register for England, plus designations. |
| What is actually for sale | Rightmove / OnTheMarket / Zoopla, or Searchland / PropertyData | There is no official live “for sale” register. See the land for sale page. |
| Off-market / constrained site sourcing | Searchland or PropertyData | Match dimensions, ownership and local policy in one query. |
| Has this site failed residential consent before? | PlanningAPI UK, LandHawk, or the LPA’s own portal | Historic refusals travel with the land. |
Custom dashboard or this map?
This website is the pre-built consumer application — no API key, no coding. Identify, ALC overlay, listed buildings, land-for-sale search and the investment guide are for buyers and investors who want to click a point.
Build a custom dashboard (CRM, deal tracker, GIS) if you need bulk UPRN lookups, title polygons, SHLAA pipelines, propensity-to-sell, or hourly planning webhooks. Start with planning.data.gov.uk (free, England) and Use land and property data (account + licence), then add Searchland or PropertyData when you need live listings and ownership in the same call.
Do not paste API keys into this static viewer. Keys belong on a server your team controls.