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ukhousing 0.2.0

Energy Performance Certificate functions are defunct

MHCLG retired the EPC Open Data service (epc.opendatacommunities.org) that ukh_epc_search(), ukh_epc_certificate(), ukh_epc_summary(), ukh_epc_bulk(), ukh_epc_recommendations_summary() and ukh_epc_set_key() used. Its API and bulk downloads now redirect to the home page of the replacement, the Get energy performance of buildings data service, so every one of these functions failed in 0.1.0.

The replacement is not a drop-in: it needs a GOV.UK One Login account and a bearer token, offers no per-local-authority bulk files and no property type or built form filters, and returns far fewer fields from a search. Rather than ship a thinner, credential-bound version, the six functions now stop with an error that points to the new service: https://get-energy-performance-data.communities.gov.uk/.

ukh_sparql() no longer offers the Open Data Communities endpoint

MHCLG also retired Open Data Communities. opendatacommunities.org now redirects to a site with no SPARQL service, so ukh_sparql(endpoint = "opendatacommunities") returned an error. It now says the endpoint has been retired. The Land Registry endpoint and custom endpoint URLs work as before.

ukh_pipr() returns data again, and current data

ukh_pipr() returned an empty data frame with a warning. The ONS stopped offering a JSON download for the rental index on its Beta API, so the function fell back to a metadata link that holds no observations. That API copy of the series also stopped at January 2024.

The function now reads the ONS monthly workbook, Price Index of Private Rents, UK: monthly price statistics, which runs to the latest month. This is a richer source, and the output changes accordingly:

• About 350 areas (UK, countries, English regions and local authorities) instead of 15.
• New columns gss_code, parent_region, monthly_change_pct, annual_change_pct and rental_price_gbp (average monthly rent).
• A new property argument selects a bedroom count or property type. It comes before refresh, so pass refresh by name.
• The index is on the ONS base, January 2023 = 100.
• The workbook is read with , now in Suggests.

ukh_hpi() percentage changes were always missing

Land Registry now labels the change columns “Percentage change (monthly) All property types” and “Percentage change (yearly) All property types”, which none of the package’s column patterns matched, so pct_change_monthly and pct_change_annual were NA for every region and month, and ukh_hpi_compare(measure = "pct_change_annual") returned nothing but NA. First-time-buyer prices were missing for the same reason (“First-time buyers” is now hyphenated). Both are mapped again. Cash, mortgage and buyer-type prices remain NA for "united-kingdom" because Land Registry does not publish those splits for the UK aggregate.

ukh_ppd(la = ) matches the names people use

Land Registry records some districts with a prefix (“CITY OF WESTMINSTER”, “CITY OF BRISTOL”, “THE VALE OF GLAMORGAN”), and la had to match exactly, so the documented example ukh_ppd(2024, la = "Westminster") returned no rows. la now ignores a leading “City of” or “The” (except for the City of London, so "London" does not quietly return the Square Mile alone). When nothing matches, a warning suggests the closest district names. This also applies to ukh_ppd_summary() and ukh_ppd_years().

Monthly series no longer go stale in the cache

ukh_hpi(), ukh_transactions() and ukh_pipr() reused a cached download indefinitely, so a user who had called them once never saw a later monthly release unless they passed refresh = TRUE. A cached copy is now fetched again once it is more than 7 days old; set options(ukhousing.cache_max_age = <days>) to change this. Price Paid bulk downloads are unchanged and still only re-fetched on request.

ukhousing 0.1.0

• Initial CRAN release.

Land Registry

• ukh_hpi() fetches UK House Price Index data for 441+ regions (countries, English regions, counties, local authorities) from 1995 onwards. Includes average prices, index values, percentage changes, sales volumes, and breakdowns by property type and buyer type.
• ukh_hpi_compare() fetches one measure across multiple regions in a wide data frame.
• ukh_transactions() returns monthly transaction volumes for a region (extracts the sales_volume series from ukh_hpi(), noting the ~5-month lag).
• ukh_ppd() fetches individual property transactions from Price Paid Data, filtered by local authority, postcode, property type, tenure, new-build status, and date range.
• ukh_ppd_bulk() downloads yearly or complete Price Paid CSVs, with automatic fallback to split part files for larger years.
• ukh_ppd_summary() returns aggregated statistics (counts, median and mean prices) by month, property type, or local authority.
• ukh_ppd_years() fetches PPD across multiple years in one call and row-binds.
• ukh_ppd_transaction() looks up a single transaction by its GUID via the Land Registry linked-data REST API.
• ukh_ppd_address() looks up transactions by postcode via the address lookup endpoint, avoiding the full yearly download.

Energy Performance Certificates (MHCLG)

• ukh_epc_set_key() stores EPC API credentials for the session.
• ukh_epc_search() queries certificates with filters (postcode, local authority, property type, energy rating, built form, date range). Pagination handled automatically via search-after tokens. Supports type = "domestic" (default), "non-domestic", and "display".
• ukh_epc_certificate() fetches a single certificate with all 90+ fields plus improvement recommendations.
• ukh_epc_summary() returns the distribution of energy ratings (A-G) for a local authority.
• ukh_epc_bulk() downloads and extracts the per-LA bulk ZIP.
• ukh_epc_recommendations_summary() aggregates improvement recommendations across a local authority.

Planning data (Digital Land)

• ukh_planning() queries planning.data.gov.uk for brownfield land, planning applications, local plans, conservation areas, listed buildings, and more. Supports format = "sf" to return simple features for GeoJSON-capable datasets (requires the sf package, declared in Suggests).
• ukh_planning_datasets() lists all 100+ available datasets.

ONS

• ukh_pipr() fetches the ONS Price Index of Private Rents (monthly, UK and regional, from January 2015) via the ONS Beta API.

Advanced

• ukh_sparql() runs an arbitrary SPARQL query against the Land Registry endpoint (HPI + PPD) or the Open Data Communities endpoint (300+ MHCLG housing-market datasets).

Helpers

• ukh_regions() returns a lookup table of common UK HPI region slugs with their names, GSS codes, and tier.
• ukh_clear_cache() empties the local download cache.
• ukh_cache_info() reports what is cached and how much space it uses.

These binaries (installable software) and packages are in development.
They may not be fully stable and should be used with caution. We make no claims about them.
Health stats visible at Monitor.