Technical standardUnited KingdomPublished 18 August 2026

Property Identity Resolution Standard

The rules used to keep a property, an official record and a market advert distinct until independent evidence supports a join.

013

identity states

Confirmed, candidate and unresolved

020

coordinate-only confirmations

Proximity can create a candidate, never a silent match

03UPRN

preferred property reference

Used when source evidence supports the link

041:n

advert relationship retained

One property may have several representations

Principal findings

What the evidence shows

01

A source URL is evidence, not an identity.

Different adverts can describe the same home, while one operator page can describe several units. Source records remain individually traceable after a confirmed property link.

02

Coordinates are a candidate generator.

Location proximity narrows the search space but cannot by itself distinguish flats, neighbouring buildings or a displaced map marker.

03

Unresolved is a valid result.

The standard values a smaller set of defensible joins over a larger graph built from silent assumptions.

Figure 1

Identity decision path

Decision stage

A candidate advances only when independent evidence reduces ambiguity. Failing a gate keeps it unresolved.

Reading note. The bars show sequence, not a quantitative score.

Method

How this output was produced

  1. Normalise addresses, postcodes, coordinates and property attributes while preserving each raw source record.
  2. Generate a bounded candidate set using geography and any stable identifiers supplied by the source.
  3. Compare independent signals such as address agreement, property attributes, imagery and temporal consistency.
  4. Record conflicts and evidence provenance, then assign confirmed, candidate or unresolved status.
  5. Re-evaluate candidates when new evidence arrives without rewriting the historical source record.

Interpretation boundary

What this release cannot prove

  • Some market sources intentionally obscure exact location, limiting defensible property-level resolution.
  • Multi-unit buildings can share coordinates and address fragments.
  • Image and attribute evidence can change over time and requires dated provenance.

Source register

Evidence and citation

Suggested citation

Upgraded Intelligence (2026), Property Identity Resolution Standard, version 1.0, UI-STD-ID-2026-01.

Questions, corrections or requests for an accessible extract can be sent to hello@theupgradeauthority.co.uk.