What is a UPRN?

Last updated 5 August 2026·Applies to Great Britain

A UPRN — Unique Property Reference Number — is the official identifier used for an addressable location in Great Britain, such as a house, flat, office, bus shelter or electricity substation. It is designed to remain stable through address changes, so it can provide a more reliable join than an address string where a source supplies it.

Who assigns UPRNs?

Local authorities create a UPRN when a property first enters the planning process, and the record is maintained through GeoPlace and published by Ordnance Survey. Since 2020 the core identifiers have been open data (OS Open UPRN, under the Open Government Licence), which is why UPRNs are becoming the standard way public services and property systems refer to a property.

Why a UPRN beats an address

  • Addresses are ambiguous. "Flat 1, 12 High Street" can be written a dozen ways, and different datasets abbreviate differently — address-string matching gets it wrong at the margins.
  • Addresses change. Renames, renumbering and mergers break address joins; the UPRN survives all of them.
  • Use the identifier each source supports. Address Lens uses a source-backed official UPRN where it is available. A Price Paid-derived record can instead use a clearly identified Address Lens internal identifier; it is not represented as an official UPRN. Flood and planning screening may be postcode-scoped, so the report states each layer's precision separately.

How to look up a property by UPRN

  1. If you already have the UPRN (from a council record, a conveyancing pack or another property system), paste it straight into the Address Lens search to look for the matching property record.
  2. If you don't, search the postcode or full address; the property's report is keyed to the best source-backed identifier available for that record.
Not every property has every record. An identifier does not guarantee that an EPC, sold price or other dataset has an entry. A missing record can reflect source scope, release lag or matching coverage, exclusions, or no qualifying record; it does not establish that the property does not exist.

Frequently asked questions

What is the full form of UPRN?

UPRN stands for Unique Property Reference Number — the official identifier for an addressable location in Great Britain, created by local authorities and published as open data by Ordnance Survey.

Where can I find a property's UPRN number?

Council records (council tax or planning correspondence) and conveyancing packs often quote it, and open datasets such as OS Open UPRN publish the identifiers. You can paste a UPRN straight into the Address Lens search to look for the matching property record.

Sources