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    By Rhys Hedges · Published 8 November 2026

    How Do You Find House Comps in the UK?

    Buyer compares two similar UK terraced houses

    You find house comps by searching completed sale prices for the same road and nearby streets, then keeping only the recent sales that match your property on type, size, condition and tenure. In England and Wales the official source is HM Land Registry’s sold price search on GOV.UK. Three to five close matches, adjusted for their differences, give you far firmer evidence than any single sale or online estimate.

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    Key points

    • Start with sold prices, not asking prices. GOV.UK’s sold price search covers England and Wales by address.
    • Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own registers (ScotLIS and Land and Property Services).
    • A good comparable is recent, genuinely similar, an arm’s-length sale and verifiable. Use three to five, never one.
    • Adjust for size, condition, tenure, outside space and timing, and widen your search only when the street has little to show.
    • Land Registry records can lag, so ask local agents about sales agreed but not yet published.

    Table of Contents

    What are house comps and why do they matter?

    “Comps” is shorthand for comparables: recent sales of homes similar to the one you want to buy. Your search is for evidence of what real buyers actually paid, because that is the best guide to what the next buyer will pay.

    RICS, the professional body for surveyors and valuers, describes comparable evidence as information used to support the valuation of a similar item. Its guidance also sets out the substitution principle: a buyer generally will not pay more than it would cost to acquire a satisfactory substitute. In plain terms, if a near-identical house two doors down sold for a certain figure, you have good grounds to resist paying much more for yours.

    That is why comps sit at the centre of any sensible offer. They turn “it feels expensive” into “here are four sales that say otherwise”, which is the kind of negotiation leverage a seller or agent has to take seriously.

    Where can you find UK sold house prices?

    The starting point depends on where the property is.

    Nation Where to look
    England and Wales GOV.UK sold price search, run by HM Land Registry
    Scotland ScotLIS, the Scottish land register service
    Northern Ireland Land and Property Services

    GOV.UK itself points Scottish and Northern Irish users to those two services, so check the official page for the current links.

    What does the Land Registry data actually cover?

    HM Land Registry says its Price Paid Data holds individual residential sale records lodged for registration in England and Wales since 1 January 1995, with more than 25 million records and thousands of new sales added every month. The standard reports can also group sales by region, county, district, London borough, postcode area, district or sector, with separate figures for new and existing homes.

    Land Registry sales data coverage and reporting levels

    The sold price search is for individual transactions. For wider movement over time, GOV.UK directs you to the UK House Price Index instead. You will need both: transactions for your comps, the index for how the market has moved since each sale.

    How up to date are the records?

    Not perfectly. Which? notes that Land Registry data reflects real sale prices rather than asking prices, but the House Price Index has a lag of roughly two months, and address-level records can sometimes take a year or more to update. So the newest sales on your street may be missing, which matters in a fast-moving market.

    If you are buying with finance or as an investor, a real estate due diligence checklist is a useful way to make sure you have checked the recency of your price data alongside everything else before committing.

    How do you find comparables step by step?

    Here is the routine I would give any buyer sitting across a desk from me.

    1. Define a tight search area. Start with the same road, then the streets immediately around it. Homes on the same road share schools, noise levels, parking and the same general desirability.
    2. Pull the completed sales. Search the official records and note date, address, price, property type and whether it was new-build or existing.
    3. Look at what each one was like. Sold prices tell you the money, not the house. Use the listing photos, floorplans and descriptions from when it was marketed to judge condition, layout and extension work.
    4. Choose three to five close matches. One sale can be a fluke: a rushed probate sale, a sale between relatives, a house that needed gutting. A handful of comparable sales smooths those out.
    5. Record the differences. Write down what is better or worse about each comp compared with your target.
    6. Adjust, directionally. Move each comp’s price up or down in your head for those differences and for the time since it sold.
    7. Check the current competition. Look at what similar homes are on the market for now. Those are your seller’s real rivals.
    8. Test it with a local agent. Ask what has been agreed recently that the register does not show yet.

    Our own guide on finding comparable sold prices for a UK property walks through the same process in more detail.

    What makes a property a reliable comparable?

    A strong comp resembles your target in as many ways as possible. RICS says the best comparable evidence is comprehensive rather than a single transaction, very similar or identical where possible, recent, arm’s-length, verifiable, consistent with local practice and supported by genuine demand (RICS guidance).

    Translated into a buyer’s checklist:

    • Same type. Detached, semi-detached, terraced, bungalow or flat. Do not compare a flat with a house.
    • Similar size. Bedrooms and floor area both matter. A three-bed with a loft conversion is not a plain three-bed.
    • Similar condition and specification. A renovated kitchen and bathroom or a tired 1980s interior can swing the price noticeably.
    • Same micro-location. Quiet cul-de-sac or main road, near a good school or not, same side of the railway.
    • Similar outside space and parking. A large garden or a driveway is often what separates two otherwise similar houses.
    • Recent and arm’s-length. A sale between family members, or at auction in distress, is weaker evidence than an open-market sale.

    How recent and how close should comps be?

    RICS stresses that evidence should be recent and representative of the market at the valuation date, but it does not give one number that suits every street. In an active area, sales from the last several months are the most useful. Where few homes change hands, you may need to look back further, and then you must allow for how prices have moved since. Treating a two-year-old price as today’s value is one of the most common mistakes buyers make.

    As a working approach, begin on your own street, widen to adjoining streets, and only then extend the radius. Different valuers apply different rules of thumb, so use any distance or time window as a starting point, not a rule.

    How do you adjust for differences between homes?

    This is where comps become useful rather than just interesting. The RICS standard says adjustments are required for differences in location, building specification, condition and size, tenure and lease terms, timing of the transaction, incentives, energy efficiency and adaptability (RICS).

    For a buyer, that breaks down into a few practical questions:

    • Is it freehold or leasehold? For a leasehold home, the remaining lease length, ground rent and service charge all affect price. Compare leasehold with leasehold on similar terms.
    • What work has been done? Extensions, loft conversions, new kitchens, rewiring and energy upgrades add value, but only if properly done. Planning permission and Building Regulations sign-off matter.
    • What is the EPC rating? Energy efficiency is now part of how buyers compare homes, and a poorly rated house may need money spent on it.
    • What else differs? Garden size and aspect, parking, road noise, flood risk, transport links and school catchments.
    • How long ago was the sale? Use the UK House Price Index for your area to estimate how much prices have moved since.

    A worked example, with made-up numbers

    The figures here are invented purely to show the method and are not real sales. Say you are looking at a three-bedroom semi with a small garden and no off-street parking.

    Comp What it was like How you read it
    A Three-bed semi, same road, similar condition, sold recently Strongest comp, little adjustment
    B Three-bed semi, next street, new kitchen and driveway Worth more than yours, so mentally adjust down
    C Three-bed semi, same road, needed full modernisation Worth less than yours, so adjust up
    D Three-bed semi, same road, sold over a year ago Allow for market movement since

    You are not looking for one magic number. You are building a range, and your offer belongs inside it, with the home’s specific faults and strengths deciding where.

    How do sold prices differ from asking prices and online estimates?

    An asking price is a seller’s hope. A sold price is a buyer’s decision. Which? advises treating portal asking prices only as a guide, because sellers are not guaranteed to get them, and says a local agent can add useful local knowledge (Which?).

    The gap is measurable. Estate Agent Today reported in April 2025 that the average gap between asking and sold prices in the UK ran from 1.7% to 3.7%, with London showing the widest at 3.71%. That is a regional snapshot, not a promise about your street, so check the local picture. We have put together local pages on this for Bristol and Exeter.

    Automated online estimates have a different weakness: they cannot see inside the property. They do not know whether the kitchen is new, whether the layout works or whether the loft has been converted. Comps you have picked and checked yourself tell you much more.

    Sellers also know that presentation affects price. Even something as simple as paint ideas that add value can explain why one house sold above another on the same street, which is worth remembering when you look at the listing photos of a comp.

    How do sold prices differ from asking prices and online estimates?

    What if there are few comps nearby?

    Rural areas, unusual properties and new developments often have little recent history. In that case:

    1. Widen the radius a little at a time, to similar streets with the same type of housing and the same schools.
    2. Extend the time window carefully, then adjust the older prices for market movement using the House Price Index.
    3. Ask local agents about agreed sales that have not reached the Land Registry yet. This is often the freshest evidence available.
    4. Combine sources. Use current asking prices as a ceiling rather than a floor, and sold prices as the anchor.
    5. Be open about uncertainty. If your evidence is thin, a wider range is more honest than a falsely precise number.

    If the property is unusual enough that you cannot find a decent comp at all, a RICS valuation or survey is worth the cost. A comparison tool, a comps spreadsheet or a free search will not replace a professional who has inspected the building.

    How do you turn comps into an offer?

    Once you have a range, add context:

    • How long has the property been on the market, and has the price already dropped?
    • Is the seller chain-free, or are they under time pressure?
    • What work will you need to do, and what will it cost?
    • Do your comps suggest the asking price is above, in line with or below the evidence?

    If the comps support the asking price, a modest offer or full asking may be sensible, and pushing hard risks losing a house you want. If they sit clearly below, you have evidence to justify a lower offer and can present it politely and specifically. Our guides on how to calculate an offer on a house and how much below asking price to offer cover that stage.

    Remember the limits. Comps are evidence, not a valuation. Your lender’s valuer will form their own view, and a mortgage valuation may not match your offer. Speak to a mortgage adviser about what that means for your borrowing, and use a RICS surveyor if you want a formal opinion of value or the condition of the building.

    What do we think about house comps?

    Most buyers we talk to have already seen the asking price and the portal estimate. Very few have looked at what actually sold on the same road, and that is the evidence that matters most.

    We built Offer Smart as a data-led guide to what to offer, not a RICS valuation, survey or financial advice. You enter an address or paste a Rightmove or Onthemarket link, and the report brings together recent local sales, including homes on the same road, alongside area information such as flood risk, crime risk and nearby schools. Our aim is to save you the hours of cross-referencing and to put the comparable evidence in front of you before you speak to the agent.

    Comps are always a matter of judgement, which is why we show you the evidence rather than a single verdict. Used well, they help you avoid overpaying and give you the confidence to make an offer you can explain.

    Rhys Hedges

    Can you check comps faster?

    You can do everything above by hand, and it is worth knowing how. If you would rather have the sold prices, area data and offer guidance gathered in one place, our full buyer report costs £19.99 as a one-off. If you are viewing several homes, the Unlimited Homebuyer Membership is £39.99 per month.

    Offer Smart

    You can see what a report looks like before you buy in our example buyer report. Estate and letting agents can also see the branded guides for agents.

    FAQ

    Is there a free way to find house comps in the UK?

    Yes. The GOV.UK sold price search lets you look up completed sales by address in England and Wales, and Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own official registers. Free data gives you prices and dates, so you will still need listing photos and floorplans to understand each home’s condition.

    How many comparables do I need?

    Aim for three to five close matches rather than relying on one. RICS says strong evidence should be comprehensive rather than a single transaction, so a handful of similar, recent sales gives a more reliable range than one.

    Why can’t I see the most recent sale on my street?

    Land Registry records can take time to appear. Which? says address-level records can sometimes take a year or more to update. Ask local estate agents about recently agreed sales that have not yet been published.

    Are online estimates the same as comps?

    No. An automated estimate is a calculated figure, while comps are real completed sales you choose and compare yourself. Estimates cannot see condition, layout or improvements, so use them as a rough guide at most.

    Are comps the same as a RICS valuation?

    No. Comparable evidence supports a valuation, but a RICS valuation is carried out by a qualified surveyor. If you need a formal valuation for a lender or a dispute, instruct a RICS valuer.

    Sources

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