5 Things to Research Before Every Property Viewing

1. Flood Risk

The Environment Agency's long-term flood risk checker (check-long-term-flood-risk.service.gov.uk) gives you a risk category for any address in England in under a minute. It covers river flooding, surface water flooding, groundwater flooding, and coastal flooding separately — because a property can be at low risk of river flooding but high risk of surface water flooding due to local drainage.

This matters beyond the obvious safety concern. Flood risk affects home insurance premiums significantly. Properties in Flood Zone 3 (high risk) can face annual insurance costs two to four times higher than comparable properties in Zone 1, if they can get cover at all. Some insurers decline flood-prone properties outright.

2. Sold Price History

The Land Registry publishes every residential sale in England and Wales, with a typical three-month lag. You can access this via GOV.UK's house price tool or through Rightmove and Zoopla's sold prices sections. For any property you're considering viewing, look up the last two or three sales on that street and on comparable streets within a few hundred metres.

This tells you two things: what the property itself last sold for (if applicable), and what genuine market value looks like in that micro-location. If a three-bed semi last sold for £285,000 in 2021 and is now listed at £380,000, that's a 33% increase — worth comparing against broader regional growth rates to assess whether the asking price is realistic.

• ►Check the subject property: If it has sold before, the Land Registry will show price, date, and whether it was freehold or leasehold. A property that sold for £350k in 2022 listed at £290k today warrants investigation.
• ►Check comparable streets: Same property type, similar condition, within 500m. Three to five comparables give a reasonable anchor for negotiation.
• ►New builds are excluded: Developer new build prices are often not representative of the resale market. Treat them as a ceiling, not a comparable.

3. Crime Statistics

The Police.uk crime map shows crime data by category for any postcode, updated monthly. It's not a perfect measure — reporting rates vary and some crime types are systematically under-reported — but it provides a useful relative comparison between neighbourhoods you're considering.

Focus on the trend over 12 months rather than a single month's data. A spike in one month may be statistical noise; a consistent upward trend in antisocial behaviour or burglary is more meaningful. Also check the crime type breakdown: vehicle crime is very different from violent crime in terms of how it affects daily life.

4. Planning Applications

Every local planning authority in England publishes its planning application register online, searchable by postcode or address. Before a viewing, search for the property's postcode and look at what's been applied for within a 200–500m radius over the past two to three years.

You're looking for large residential developments, commercial or industrial changes of use, or retrospective applications that suggest prior unauthorised work. A planning permission for 200 flats on the field behind the garden changes the character of the street. A retrospective application for a loft conversion on the subject property may indicate works done without consent — which can create issues at the point of sale.

• ►Permitted development: Not all work requires planning permission. Extensions within permitted development rights won't appear in the register — ask the seller about any works done.
• ►Refused applications: A refused application nearby can be revealing — it shows what was attempted and what the council's position is on that type of development.
• ►HS2 and infrastructure: For properties in the Midlands and North, check proximity to HS2 Phase 2 routes. Compulsory purchase zones and blight notices affect specific areas.

5. Broadband Speed

Ofcom's connected nations checker and the industry-standard Openreach checker allow you to look up the actual broadband infrastructure available at any UK address — not just the theoretical maximum speed, but the technology type (full fibre, FTTC, copper only) and the realistic expected speeds.

This has become more important as remote and hybrid working has become standard. A property with copper-only broadband delivering 15 Mbps in a rural or semi-rural area is a genuine constraint on how that property can be used, and can affect resale value as fibre rollout continues. Check whether full fibre (FTTP) is available, under construction, or not planned.