Industry calls for residential mapping to ‘revolutionise’ the market
Leaders in the residential property industry have written to housing secretary Robert Jenrick calling for accurate identification of buildings to boost safety and transparency.
The open letter says adoption of a Unique Property Reference Number for all residential properties would also give tenants greater protection and speed up home sales.
The 53 signatories include the British Property Federation, RICS, major agents including JLL, Savills and Knight Frank, estate agents and leaders in build-to-rent.
Leaders in the residential property industry have written to housing secretary Robert Jenrick calling for accurate identification of buildings to boost safety and transparency.
The open letter says adoption of a Unique Property Reference Number for all residential properties would also give tenants greater protection and speed up home sales.
The 53 signatories include the British Property Federation, RICS, major agents including JLL, Savills and Knight Frank, estate agents and leaders in build-to-rent.
Last year, the government announced that UPRNs would become the standard way of referencing properties in a move to improve fraud detection, home sales and accuracy in processes including insurance quotes.
The group wants to extend this, making 12-digit UPRNs mandatory for all public sector data sets, government tenders and new housing policy.
Dan Hughes, founder of Alpha Property Insight and the Real Estate Data Foundation, said: “The property sector is at the heart of the economy, people’s wellbeing and our impact on the environment. There are huge opportunities for technology to help with improving every aspect of this, but to do so requires the effective use of data.”
Theresa Wallace, founder of The Lettings Industry Council, added: “Widespread adoption of UPRNs could revolutionise the property market; this is a really exciting initiative which has industry support and we now need the government to add theirs.”
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Photo: High Level/Shutterstock
