Commercial launch of property identification system
For the first time, probably since the Doomsday Book, a complete list of English property addresses is now available, updated in almost real-time. The National Land and property Gazetteer (NLPG), the first, definitive, national (England and Wales) address list that provides unique identification or properties and conforms to British Standards is to be launched for commercial use of 30 April 2008. The onward uses of the NLPG are potentially huge, from wider public sector use to commercial application in insurance, customer profiling, logistics, satellite navigation and more.
The commercial availability of the NLPG is s milestone for this local government led project. It is based on the definitive list of standardised and authoritative addresses from local authorities in England and Wales. The NLPG represents the largest shared service of its type and is well embedded in local government. The process not only brings direct benefits to individual local government bodies through efficiencies and service improvements but as an output, provides a much-needed definitive, live list of all property in England and Wales.
Steve Brandwood, Geographic Information Team – programme manager at IdeA said: “From the NPLG’s earliest days, many local authorities started to derive the benefits of utilising one of integrated corporate address dataset. Every local authority in England and Wales is now committed to the NPLG process. Putting in place a commercial licence for the data will enable all sectors to benefit from an address gazetteer regularly maintained at source, and including the key for efficiently linking datasets, the Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN).”

Rising Welsh auction market
The commercial property auction market in Wales continued to rise in the fourth quarter of 2007 says the latest commercial property auction survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
The total value raised at commercial property auctions continued to rise, from over £19m in Q3 to £23,804,000 in Q4. Wales and Scotland were the only areas of the UK to see an increase in deal values over the past year, bucking a nationwide trend for reduced activity.
Across the UK, 1,245 commercial properties were sold at auction in Q4, an 11% decline on the equivalent period a year earlier. However in Wales there was a decline of only two properties sold from Q4 2006 to A4 2007, dropping only slightly from 79 to 77,
Cathy McLean, director of RICS Wales said: “The last quarter of every year typically sees an increase in activity at auction houses, and last year was no exception. The increase in value raised at auction shows Wales is bucking the trend for reduced activity, demonstrating our commercial auction market here is performing much better than across the rest of the UK. This may be an early indicator of a return to confidence in the mainstream property markets. We will certainly be watching the markets with interest.
However there is a chance ongoing credit problems may weight down on commercial prices in 2008 as investors and occupiers remain cautious, yet the knock on impacts from these financial constraints should be less acute at the auction houses, as smaller lot sizes are less exposed to weakness in the commercial business and mortgage market.”

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