The Land Registry has now made historical price paid records available to download for free as part of its open data programme.
Developers and businesses will be able to use and reuse one of the world’s largest property datasets, made up of over 17 million residential cash and mortgage sales in England and Wales.
The first phase was released late last week showing records of sales at full market value lodged for registration between January 2009 and January 2012.
Data covering January 1995 to December 2008 will be released by November 2013.
Ed Lester, Chief Land Registrar and Chief Executive Officer said: “Although we have been publishing this data for free since March 2012, this is the first time the complete historical set is going to be made available free of charge as open data, actively demonstrating our commitment to economic growth through greater transparency and open data.”
Heather Savory, Chair of the Open Data User Group (ODUG) said: “ODUG is delighted that Land Registry has made this dataset open data, free of charge under an Open Government License (OGL).
“The data will be valuable to many users. Land Registry is setting the standard here for the release of open data having responded quickly and positively to the requests for this data submitted by the data community via the request form at data.gov.uk/odug.”
The Land Registry has also announced the launch of its first open data challenge. Entrants are being asked to show the value of Land Registry’s open data by demonstrating the potential of how it can be used. £3,000 has been earmarked as prizes for successful entries.
