What's inside
Three public datasets, each maintained by a different part of government, matched together and shown against the same building.
VOA rating list
The Valuation Office Agency's non-domestic rating compiled list — rateable values, summary valuations, floor areas and the full assessment history for every taxable non-domestic property in England and Wales, from offices and shops to warehouses and leisure sites.
HM Land Registry CCOD & OCOD
Commercial & Corporate Ownership Data and Overseas Companies Ownership Data — every title in England and Wales registered to a UK or overseas company, including the proprietor's country of incorporation where it's an overseas entity. Where a title can be matched to a building, its registered proprietor is shown, with the match strength (address, street, or postcode-level) always labelled.
Planning applications
Live and historical planning applications matched to buildings by address, so you can see at a glance whether a site has anything in progress — with a direct link out to the source planning portal for the full case file and documents.
Properties without a VOA record
Not every Land Registry title or planning application sits on a building with a business-rates assessment. Where no VOA record exists, the property is still grouped from its titles and/or planning applications so it's searchable and shown on the map — clearly labelled as having no rating data, never folded into a rated building's figures.
Search by whatever you've got
One search box, several ways in.
- Address or postcode — find a building the way you'd normally describe it.
- UARN or HM Land Registry title number — jump straight to a specific assessment or title.
- Company or proprietor name — see everything registered to an owner across the country.
- Near me — browse what's nearby on the map, or filter to buildings with an open planning application.
Who this is for
Due diligence & conveyancing
Check rateable value, ownership and planning history for a site in one pass, before you go looking in three different places.
Investors & agents
Screen a company's holdings, or see what else is happening on a street before making an approach.
Journalists & researchers
Trace ownership and rates history behind a story without filing a separate request for each dataset.
Residents & local businesses
Look up what a neighbouring unit pays in rates, who owns it, or whether a planning application is pending.
How the data is matched
Nothing here is invented, and every match is labelled with how confident it is.
Buildings are formed by grouping VOA assessments on postcode, street and building identifier, with unit/floor/suite qualifiers stripped out. Ownership links are tiered — "postcode + street + building" is a direct address match, down to "postcode only" for a weak locality-level link — and the tier is always shown alongside the result, so you can judge how much to trust it. Planning matches are best-effort by address; the source planning portal is always one click away for the authoritative record. Properties with no VOA record are grouped separately — by a shared address, or by sitting on the same Ordnance Survey building footprint — and always shown with a "no rating data" label rather than merged into a rated building's figures.
Frequently asked questions
Is Buildings Etc free to use?
Yes. Searching and browsing the register is free with no account needed. A free account is only required to open a building's full record — its complete assessment schedule, registered ownership and planning applications.
Where does the data come from?
Three public datasets: the Valuation Office Agency's non-domestic rating list, HM Land Registry's Commercial & Corporate Ownership Data (CCOD) and Overseas Companies Ownership Data (OCOD), and local planning authority planning applications aggregated via PlanIt. All are Crown copyright / Open Government Licence v3.0 or an equivalent open licence.
Does this cover Scotland or Northern Ireland?
No. The underlying VOA and HM Land Registry datasets cover England and Wales only, so that's this register's coverage too.
Is this an official government website?
No. This is an independent aggregation of public data and is not affiliated with the Valuation Office Agency, HM Land Registry, or any local authority.
Can I search by company name to see everything it owns?
Yes. Searching by proprietor or company name returns every building with a registered title matched to that company, nationwide.
How reliable is the ownership match for a building?
Every ownership link is labelled with a match tier, from a direct postcode-plus-street-plus-building match down to a weaker postcode-only link, so you can judge how much to trust it rather than taking a match on faith.
How are buildings grouped from the underlying rates data?
Buildings are formed by grouping VOA rating assessments on postcode, street and building identifier, with unit, floor and suite qualifiers stripped out, so a multi-tenant building shows as one record with all of its assessments listed underneath.
What if a property has no VOA rating record?
Some properties have a registered Land Registry title or a planning application but no business-rates assessment — an exempt use, a gap in the source data, or simply a property that isn't separately rated. These are still included, grouped from their titles and planning applications and clearly labelled as having no rating data, rather than left out of the register entirely.
Ready to look something up?
It's free, it covers the whole of England and Wales, and there's nothing to sign up for.
Search the register →