The CDRC Residential Property Counts (LSOA Geography) dataset provides yearly small area estimates (1997-2022) of the number of ‘active’ residential properties within each neighbourhood (Lower layer Super Output Area (LSOA: England and Wales), Data Zone (DZ: Scotland) and Super Output Area (SOA: Northern Ireland)) in the UK.

Acquiring historical lifecycle information about individual properties in the UK poses challenges, as most data providers primarily focus on monitoring 'active' properties for facilitating mail and package deliveries around the country.

The CDRC Residential Property Counts uses a large dataset tracing the names and addresses of more than one billion individuals dating back to 1997 (LCRs: Linked Consumer Registers) to calibrate property lifecycle information within an authoritative geolocated address and property dataset. The CDRC Residential Property Counts data allow researchers to take a temporal perspective (limited to the years pertaining to 1997-2022) on, for instance, the geography and development of the residential housing stock in the UK. Potential applications include assessing changes in geography and levels of vulnerability in the context of extreme weather events like droughts and floods at the small area level.

While property counts are technically not considered as personal data under the GDPR, counts of LSOAs with fewer than 10 properties are obfuscated. This is done by replacing the estimates with a random number ranging from 1-9. Estimates of geolocated active properties for each year between 1997 and 2022 are available as a secure dataset (see link below).