The Urban Big Data Centre (UBDC) acts as an intermediary, helping to provide researchers with access to digital data for social research. Operating with support from the Economic and Social Research Council under its Smart Data Research UK programme and the University of Glasgow, the Centre navigates a persistent challenge. While there has been an explosion in the collection of digital housing data, much of it remains owned by private companies and locked away as commercial assets. Meanwhile, existing public datasets have not kept pace with a rapidly changing housing market.
Traditional sources, such as Census and survey data, continue to suffer from low frequency or limited sample sizes. Crucially, they lack “up-to-date, high-quality data on market transactions, both rentals and sales.” They provide a snapshot of occupancy but miss the real-time pricing dynamics needed to understand fast-moving markets – this is most notable in the Private Rented Sector (PRS), which has more than doubled in size since the 1990s.
Without granular transaction data, researchers struggle to analyse critical issues ranging from the impacts of rental regulations to progress with climate change policies.
“There has been an explosion in the collection of digital data… but it is owned by private companies for whom it represents a commercial asset. The lack of large-scale, up-to-date transaction data limited the kinds of analysis we could conduct.”
Nick Bailey, Director, UBDC
High-Quality, Market-Wide Coverage
To overcome these limitations, UBDC sought a partner that could provide comprehensive, high-frequency data on both rentals and sales. After evaluating various property listing companies, UBDC selected Hometrack to access Zoopla’s historic and current listings data.
The partnership was built on a shared vision of public benefit, solidified through a bespoke licensing agreement that allowed UBDC to ingest data via API. However, before making this data available to select academic researchers, UBDC needed to ensure its reliability.
They conducted their own independent analyses to assess how accurately the data represented the wider rental and sales markets, concluding that it performed “very well indeed!” With the dataset officially validated for rigorous academic use, UBDC began sharing it with academic researchers for analysis.
“We decided to work with Hometrack… partly because of its market coverage and the quality of the data, but it was also because they saw the agreement not simply in commercial terms but as a means of providing a social or public benefit.”
Nick Bailey, Director, UBDC
Powering Multi-Disciplinary Research
Once accessible, the Hometrack data immediately began underpinning numerous high-impact research projects.
The partnership demonstrated the versatility of the data. By combining Zoopla listings with spatial datasets, such as public transport accessibility and housing benefit rates, researchers generated insights that extended far beyond housing economics into public health, environmental sustainability, and urban planning.
“I think it is fair to say that none of the previous work could have been achieved without access to the Hometrack data… The data are immensely valuable as a means to understand the impacts of a wide range of Government policies.”
Nick Bailey, Director, UBDC
Key Research Outcomes Enabled by Zoopla Data:
Looking ahead, UBDC remains “very keen to maintain and build upon the relationship”. They are actively seeking new funding to secure the future of the partnership, ensuring continued insight into the impact of government policy.
Interested in seeing more? Explore the full range of academic research powered by our data in the Hometrack Bibliography.
