UPRN & addresses
How do I find a UPRN for an address?
There are three reliable ways to find a UPRN.
For one address, create a free Homedata account and look the address up in your dashboard. Each lookup costs 2 tokens and returns the matched 12-digit UPRN with the property record it unlocks.
For a list of addresses, use the Homedata API. Send each address to the address find endpoint (2 tokens) and it returns the matching addresses with their UPRNs. Or pull every address and UPRN at a postcode in one call (2 tokens). This is the route for CRM imports, spreadsheets and onboarding forms.
The third route is Ordnance Survey’s free OS Open UPRN download. It lists every UPRN with its coordinates but no address text, so you have to join it to another dataset before it’s usable.
Addresses typed by people rarely match the official record exactly, so a search that copes with small differences in spelling and format matters more than it sounds.
What this means in practice
Say a tenant types "Flat 2, 14 Acacia Road, Camden NW1 5AB" into a sign-up form. The string has no comma after the flat, missing punctuation, and Camden is the borough rather than the post town. A direct lookup against AddressBase fails. A fuzzy address-matcher resolves it to UPRN 5048291734 with a confidence of 0.92, drops the borough, and rewrites the post town to LONDON. Without that step the record either stays unmatched or, worse, joins to the wrong flat in the same building: common in mansion blocks where flat numbers run 1–80.
Related questions
Can I find a UPRN from a postcode alone?
A postcode covers anywhere from one property to roughly 100, so it cannot resolve to a single UPRN. What it can do is return the candidate list. Homedata's UPRN Lookup accepts postcode input and returns every UPRN within it, with the address line for each, letting the user pick. For bulk reverse lookups (give me every UPRN in CR0 1XX), the OS Open UPRN dataset joined to OS Open Names handles it offline.
What if my address has no UPRN?
Almost every addressable object in Great Britain has one: over 41 million UPRNs are live. If a search returns nothing, the most likely cause is a brand-new build still on a "Plot" record, an unusual sub-property (HMO bedroom, mooring, mast) not yet split out, or a Northern Ireland address (UPRNs cover GB; NI uses a separate system run by Land and Property Services). Submit a missing-address request to your local authority street naming team and they will allocate one within a few weeks.
Building with UK property data?
Need UPRNs for a whole list of addresses? Match them through the Homedata API, one call per address.
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