HomeBuyerCheck vs PropertyChecker.co.uk: Which Should You Use?

What PropertyChecker.co.uk actually is

PropertyChecker.co.uk describes its main service as a free property check of HM Land Registry price paid data: enter a postcode, pick the address, and see the date of sale, price paid, tenure, year built for properties built from 1995 onward and the transaction category, from over 20 million records updated monthly and covering England and Wales. Its freehold and leasehold check pages use the same data, so they tell you the tenure recorded at the last sale since 1995, and its own page notes they do not include lease start dates or lengths.

Alongside the free lookups it runs a document-ordering service. Its Land Registry documents page states a service fee of £4.99 applies on top of HM Land Registry fees, and compares itself with the gov.uk service, which it describes as cheaper but limited to fewer document types. A copy of a lease is £8.99 with extra documents at £4 each. Its find-property-owner page points users to HM Land Registry's £7 downloadable copy of the title register. There is also a Property Data API for businesses.

What HomeBuyerCheck does differently

HomeBuyerCheck is one report for one address rather than a set of tools. The free report pulls the same HM Land Registry sales history PropertyChecker shows, then adds what a lookup site does not: Environment Agency flood risk, police.uk crime, schools with Ofsted ratings, council tax band, Ofcom broadband and mobile coverage, planning constraints from planning.data.gov.uk, British Geological Survey ground risk, noise, air quality, listed-building status and demographics, all in about 30 seconds.

The £4.99 Premium tier is the layer PropertyChecker does not attempt: an HM Land Registry CCOD and OCOD ownership match to flag a UK or overseas company owner, a Companies House check on that company, the Building Safety Regulator Higher-Risk Building register, First-tier Tribunal Property Chamber decisions at the building, UKHSA radon and Coal Authority bands, conservation and Article 4 overlays, and an AI buyer's verdict with seller questions. Premium+ at £6.99 adds AI briefs for your solicitor, surveyor and broker and a Negotiation Report.

Where PropertyChecker is the right choice

• You want to know what a house sold for, and when, without registering for anything. The free price check does exactly that.
• You want a quick freehold or leasehold answer for a property that has sold since 1995.
• You need the official title register or a copy of the lease emailed quickly and do not mind paying a service fee over the gov.uk price to have it handled.
• You are a developer or business and want property data by API.

Where HomeBuyerCheck is the right choice

• You are about to offer and want the risks, not just the sold price: flood, ground, listing, planning, ownership and the building's dispute history in one place.
• You want to know whether the owner is a company, and if so whether it is solvent, before you deal with it.
• You are buying a flat and want the BSR Higher-Risk Building status and any tribunal history before the management pack arrives.
• You want an AI summary of what the flags mean and what to ask the seller, rather than assembling the picture from separate lookups.

Price, side by side

Both start free. PropertyChecker's paid side is document ordering: its own page puts the service fee at £4.99 on top of HM Land Registry's £7 per document, so an official copy of the register comes to £11.99 through PropertyChecker against £7 direct from gov.uk. HomeBuyerCheck's paid side is analysis: £4.99 buys the ownership, Companies House, BSR, tribunal and ground-risk layer with an AI verdict, and £6.99 the briefs and Negotiation Report. HomeBuyerCheck does not supply the official title document; if you need the register itself, order it from gov.uk for £7, as our title register guide explains.

The verdict

PropertyChecker.co.uk is a useful free reference for sold prices and tenure, and a convenience service for ordering documents. HomeBuyerCheck is the pre-offer report. Many buyers use both: PropertyChecker to check what the neighbours paid while browsing, HomeBuyerCheck on the property they are serious about, before the £250 to £450 search pack and the survey.

Everything on this page about PropertyChecker.co.uk was read from its live pages on 11 September 2026. Its services and fees can change; check them before relying on a figure.