Evidence before estimates.

What the system is designed to do

Property evidence arrives in incompatible shapes: an official sale, a certificate, a planning entity, an advertised rent, a map result or a dated calendar. Upgraded Intelligence preserves what each source actually proves, then makes the records comparable enough to study together.

We make the available evidence useful while keeping its origin, date and limits visible. The data cannot support one definitive number for every property.

1. DiscoverSearch defined geographic areas and record the source, search boundary and time of observation.
2. NormaliseStandardise dates, currencies, coordinates, postcodes, property attributes and geographic identifiers without rewriting the underlying evidence.
3. Resolve identityCompare location, imagery and property attributes. A possible match remains a possible match until enough independent signals agree.
4. Observe changeKeep dated price and availability states so the market can be studied as a sequence, not a one-off screenshot.
5. Publish aggregatesRemove operational detail, group observations to an appropriate geography and state the sample, date and definition beside the result.

Short-let market observations

The public map shows aggregate listing records placed into sampled map cells. A record is evidence that a listing version was observed in a defined search, not proof of a unique home. The same property can be advertised more than once or appear through more than one channel.

Dated calendar observations preserve the price and availability state shown at collection time. They allow booking pace and market change to be studied, but the cause of a state change is not supplied by the marketplace.

Observation frame and release controls

Collection uses a fixed national frame of 3,847 sampled cells. Public consumer marketplace result pages and listing pages are observed against that frame, then retained only when the record has enough current location evidence for the published geography. The map does not expose collection endpoints, account details or source-specific operational controls.

Each approved national release reports completed, capped and total cells together with geolocation, allocation and grid-completion rates. Definitions remain fixed within a release. Local change is withheld when coverage moves too far between the compared dates, because a collection shift can otherwise look like a market shift.

Provider identities and operational collection details are withheld to protect source security. Coverage, completion, allocation and uncertainty measures remain public so the effect of those limits can still be inspected.

Rates and prices

Advertised prices can move with date, party size, length of stay, fees and platform presentation. A quoted nightly rate is therefore tied to the search configuration and observation date. Advertised rent is not the same thing as an achieved rent; official achieved-rent series are kept distinct.

Geography

Search grids are a collection tool, not a claim about neighbourhood boundaries. Public area names describe the labels attached to sampled cells. Official postcode and statistical geographies are used where a formal boundary is required.

Area estimates can use verified approximate advert positions and postcode centres where a record has no existing coordinates. These positions do not establish an exact address. Comparisons are withheld when a change in location evidence affects the measurement.

UK Property Atlas

Atlas profiles use the Office for National Statistics December 2025 local authority boundaries and the 9 September 2026 public observation release. House prices, rents and observations retain their own evidence dates. Yield uses rent and house prices from the same month. Each area profile shows the period beside its measures.

Prices, rents and the gross-yield proxy

Average prices and annual price change come from the mix-adjusted UK House Price Index. Average rents and annual rent change come from the Price Index of Private Rents, a modelled stock measure covering new and existing tenancies. The gross-yield proxy is calculated as twelve times the area-average monthly rent divided by the area-average sale price.

Sales activity

The twelve-month registered-sales figure sums the records present in the latest twelve published HPI volume months. Those recent volumes are provisional and rise as registrations complete, so the Atlas presents them as source evidence rather than a final estimate of market activity. It does not use them to infer momentum.

Two-year sale-price growth compares the latest mix-adjusted HPI average price with the same area 24 months earlier. It uses the price-index period shown in the profile and remains subject to the publisher's normal revisions.

Percentiles and benchmarks

Percentiles are calculated independently for each measure across local authorities with a non-missing comparable value. Country and UK benchmarks are medians, not weighted national averages. A high percentile is a position in a distribution, not a positive rating.

Allocating observation cells

The national observation grid is coarser than many local authorities. Atlas roll-ups approximate each cell's boundary share using an evenly spaced sub-grid, preserve the cell total with integer allocation, and use a published district centroid for very small or narrow coastal fragments that fall between sample points. Density divides the allocated records by official boundary area. The resulting figure is an area-level observation measure, not a precise dwelling count.

Deliberate missingness

England and Wales rents are published at local-authority level. Scotland and Northern Ireland use rental geographies that do not map directly onto the Atlas boundary set, so their local-authority rent and yield cells remain blank. They are not filled with regional averages.

Identity resolution

A marketplace advert, a UPRN and a sale record are different objects. Joining them too quickly creates confident-looking errors. Candidate matches are scored using available evidence such as location proximity, consistent property attributes and image similarity. Ambiguous candidates remain unjoined.

Published aggregates may include listing versions before identity resolution. Where that is true, the metric is labelled as adverts, listings or records rather than homes or properties.

Published technical standards

The general method is supported by versioned notes for decisions that materially affect interpretation.

Known limitations

Coverage is uneven

Collection depth varies by place, source and date. Sparse areas on the map are left sparse. They should not be interpreted as proof that no market exists.

Listings can duplicate

One home may generate several advert versions or appear on several websites. Until identity is resolved, aggregate record counts are not unique-property counts.

Source interfaces change

Marketplaces can change search behaviour, availability displays and result limits. Collection methods are reviewed when a source changes and historical definitions are not silently rewritten.

Official data has publication lag

Transactions, indices and administrative records are updated on the publisher's timetable. The coverage ledger states the last loaded period rather than implying real-time completeness.

Corrections and reproducibility

Material public figures carry a snapshot or release date. If a source correction changes a published conclusion, the affected output receives a dated explanation. Immutable release files are not silently overwritten. Data extracts are published with selected research where disclosure is safe and licensing allows it.

The research governance policy explains editorial responsibility, commercial separation and correction handling. Questions about a definition or correction can be sent to hello@theupgradeauthority.co.uk.