Free tool for landlords and investors
Enter a postcode to see the council, the housing mix, flood risk, sold prices and crime for the area. These are the location checks mortgage lenders and valuers look at.
Important, not financial advice: This tool shows public data for the postcode area, not a survey of a specific property. Figures can be out of date and some sources cover only part of the UK. Lenders each apply their own criteria. Always check with the lender, a valuer and a qualified mortgage adviser.
The property is the lender's security for the loan. If the mortgage is not repaid, the lender may need to sell the property to get its money back. Lenders therefore look at how easily the property would sell, and at what price. This is called resaleability, and the area plays a large part in it.
Shops, takeaways, pubs, garages and industrial units close to a home can bring noise, smells, late opening hours, extra traffic and a higher fire risk. Fewer buyers want to live next to them, so the property can be harder to sell. Lenders do not like the property to be surrounded by commercial premises, and some restrict lending on homes above or next to them. Use the Google Maps and Street View links to look at what is around the property.
Some lenders are cautious where a large share of the surrounding homes are social rented, from a council or housing association. Their concern is resaleability: a smaller pool of buyers can make a property harder to sell. Each lender sets its own approach, and there is no single limit used across the market. The housing mix above shows the share of households in the immediate area that rent from a council or housing association.
An investor-led area or development is one where a large share of homes are owned by landlords rather than the people living in them. New-build blocks of flats sold mainly to investors are a common example. Lenders are cautious because a property in an area with few owner occupiers can be harder to sell to someone who wants to live in it. The private rented share in the housing mix shows how much of the immediate area is let.
Lenders limit how much they lend in one area or one development. When a lender has lent too much in a postcode, it is over-exposed there and may stop lending in that postcode for a time, even on a good property. Lenders do not usually publish these postcodes. A mortgage broker can check which lenders are still lending in an area.
It can. Lenders expect the property to have buildings insurance, and in high flood risk areas insurance can be harder to find or more expensive. The flood figures above come from the Environment Agency and cover flooding from rivers and the sea in England. For surface water, reservoirs and groundwater, use the GOV.UK long term flood risk service.
The checker counts all street-level crimes on police.uk within 1 mile of the postcode over the latest 12 months available. It divides that by the number of residents living within the same mile, from the 2021 Census, and shows the result per 1,000 residents. The England and Wales average of about 104 is worked out the same way: around 5.2 million police recorded crimes (excluding fraud) and around 1 million anti-social behaviour incidents in the year to March 2026 (Office for National Statistics), divided by 59.6 million residents. Within 20% of the average counts as close to it. Crime locations on police.uk are approximate.
The council and area details come from the ONS Postcode Directory through postcodes.io. The housing mix and residents come from the 2021 Census. Flood risk comes from the Environment Agency, sold prices from HM Land Registry and crime from police.uk. Sold prices and crime are fetched live each time you search. The housing mix covers England and Wales, flood risk covers England, and sold prices cover England and Wales.
Area details: ONS Postcode Directory via postcodes.io. Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right.
Housing mix and residents: Census 2021 (tables TS054 and TS001) and Output Area population weighted centroids, Office for National Statistics, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Flood risk: Environment Agency, Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea – Postcodes in Areas at Risk (July 2026). Contains Environment Agency information © Environment Agency and/or database right. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Sold prices: Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2021. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Crime: police.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. England and Wales average from Office for National Statistics, Crime in England and Wales: year ending March 2026, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.