Meeting New Rental Sector Demands with Better Property Data Standards
The Renters’ Rights Act brings new rules to the private rental sector in England. While much of the attention has centred on changes to tenancy agreements and eviction rights, the Act also signals deeper changes in how rental data is expected to be managed and shared.
For businesses operating in the housing sector, whether property platforms, letting agents, CRMs or compliance services, this legislation highlights the growing need for consistent, accurate, and traceable property information. In particular, it strengthens the case for using standardised identifiers, such as the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN), to ensure systems can work together reliably and support future compliance requirements.
What the Act Signals for Property Data Management
The Act introduces new infrastructure for monitoring and regulating the rental sector, including a national landlord database and a statutory ombudsman. These changes point to a more structured, data-driven approach to regulation, with implications for how property information is recorded, shared, and validated across systems.
In particular, we can expect:
-
Stronger traceability requirements: Properties will need to be uniquely and reliably identified across government systems, letting platforms, and agent records.
-
Standardisation of data: As platforms integrate with new databases and oversight bodies, aligning address records to a common structure will be key to maintaining compatibility and reducing duplication.
-
Formal data workflows: Processes such as registering a property, handling a complaint, or submitting documentation to an ombudsman will depend on having clean, verifiable address data.
These changes are a prompt for organisations to review how they capture, store, and link address and property data, especially if they manage tenancies or landlord information at scale.
Why UPRNs Matter More Than Ever
The Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) is a persistent identifier assigned to an addressable location in Great Britain. Managed by GeoPlace and maintained through local authorities and Ordnance Survey, the UPRN allows any system to reference a specific property unambiguously.
For the Renters’ Rights Act, UPRNs provide several advantages.
Reliable property matching
UPRNs remove confusion caused by duplicate, incomplete, or inconsistent address formats. This is particularly valuable when data needs to be matched across systems or submitted to external databases.
Improved Data integrity
When all address-related records, such as tenancies, inspections, or landlord registrations are linked to a UPRN, businesses reduce errors and improve the reliability of reporting.
Automation and compliance
UPRNs make it easier to automate processes such as duplicate detection, address validation, and data syncing between internal systems and third-party services.
What to Do Next
The Renters’ Rights Act creates a strong incentive for housing-related businesses to review the quality of their property data. As rental regulation evolves, accurate address data is becoming a foundation for compliance, automation, and efficiency.
Whether you're a technology provider, managing agent, or data platform, we can support your teams with:
Address Validation
Capture accurate, up-to-date addresses at the point of entry using our UK-wide lookup tools. UPRNs included at no extra cost.
Address Cleansing
Audit and improve legacy data by correcting formatting issues, resolving duplicates, and appending missing UPRNs using official reference datasets.
Address Database
Download a complete, structured list of UK addresses for use in your systems or offline referencing.
Get Started with Trusted Address Data
To learn more about how Ideal Postcodes can help you prepare for the data demands of the Renters’ Rights Act, get in touch with us.