Fifteen months after the guidance underpinning it was quietly withdrawn, material information remains the least settled duty in estate agency. From 21 August 2026, Propertymark members can pull a basic report on it free of charge.

We have built Propalt into Propertymark Connect, the trade body's referral service. Send a referral and you get access to a report drawing together construction detail, EPC data, planning, property history and local market performance.

Connect is Propertymark's free referral and lead generation platform for members, and it exists so that a client moving outside your patch does not cost you the business. Members refer buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants to another qualified Propertymark professional, and leads, valuation requests and instructions come back the other way. More than 2,000 agents are already registered.

What changes with this partnership is that the referral itself now returns something you can use on your next appointment. The question worth answering is why property data was the thing we chose to put there.

What is in the report

Each report combines detailed property information with local market data. A basic report can include:

• Property characteristics and construction. Type, structure and the key materials used.
• EPC data. The current rating and certificate detail for the property.
• Planning information. Applications and decisions relating to the property.
• Property history. What has happened to the property previously.
• Other property and risk information. The wider detail that shapes a buyer's or tenant's decision.
• Local market performance and an estimated value. So the property sits in the context of its own market, not a national average.

It is designed for three moments in particular: preparing for a valuation, sitting in front of a potential vendor, and helping a consumer understand a property they are considering.

What the report does not do

The report supports material information gathering. It does not by itself discharge the duty, and we would rather say so here than have it assumed.

It also does not cover everything the government is looking at. MHCLG's home buying and selling reform consultation asked which categories should be captured as material information, and found support for tenure (56%), sewerage (56%), ground rent and service charge (54%), water supply (51%), parking (51%), council tax (47%) and rights and easements (47%). The basic report does not currently include those seven. Some of them sit in registers a data platform can reach. Others, such as rights and easements or a service charge figure, come from the title and from the seller, and no data provider can source them on your behalf.

The duty stays with the agent making the invitation to purchase. What a report changes is how much of the evidence is already in front of you when you start.

Why this matters now

Material information is one of the least settled areas of agency compliance, and the risk attached to it went up rather than down.

The NTSELAT guidance that most agents were trained on, Parts A, B and C, was withdrawn in May 2025 after the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 replaced the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations on 6 April 2025. The duty to disclose did not go with it. Three things changed at the same time:

• Enforcement moved from Trading Standards to the Competition and Markets Authority. The CMA can now decide that consumer law has been breached and impose a penalty directly, without first going through a court process.
• The test got harder to argue your way out of. Under the CPRs, an omission had to be shown to affect the average consumer's decision. Under the DMCC Act, a misleading omission can be an infringement whether or not it changed a particular buyer's decision.
• The penalties got bigger. Fines reach 10 per cent of global annual turnover for the most serious breaches, with personal penalties available against individuals who are accessories to a breach.

MHCLG has committed to publishing new guidance on listing information during 2026, and its Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap of 19 June 2026 sets out a phased programme running to the end of 2029, with upfront information drawn from trusted data sources under clear standards.

So the obligation is live, the regulator can fine you directly without going to court, and showing you did not mean to mislead is no longer the defence it was. That is a data problem before it is a compliance problem, and it is the problem this partnership is aimed at.

"We built Propalt because the property industry has access to huge amounts of valuable data, but too often the information an agent needs is spread across different systems or takes too long to find. Partnering with Propertymark Connect gives agents a much simpler way to put that intelligence to work at the point it matters."

Kieran Slinger, Co-founder, Propalt

What it gives you in practice

• Less time hunting, more time advising. One report instead of four browser tabs and a phone call to the council.
• A stronger market appraisal. You can show a vendor the picture of their home and their local market rather than handing over a price and hoping it lands.
• Evidence you can point to. When a buyer asks what you knew and when, the answer is a dated report, not a memory.
• A referral that pays you back twice. Once in the referral fee and the relationship, once in the intelligence you keep.

"Propertymark Connect is about helping our members create and retain more business through a trusted professional network. Agents can generate and receive referrals through Connect while accessing property intelligence that can help them demonstrate their expertise and deliver a better service to consumers."

Jason Lee, Head of Commercial, Propertymark

What sits behind the report

The basic report is one view of a much larger platform. Propalt covers 29 million properties across England and Wales, built on eight authoritative sources: HM Land Registry, Royal Mail PAF, the Office for National Statistics, the EPC Register, the Valuation Office Agency, HMRC SDLT, Companies House and Ordnance Survey. Every dataset is on a 24 hour refresh. On top of that sits our own market data covering sales and lettings activity, planning, demographics, environmental and flood risk, and landlord portfolios, including portfolio ownership that is not visible on the open market.

Two things make it different from a report you download and file. First, it is an open intelligence layer rather than another system to live inside. Propalt works alongside whatever CRM you already run, and the data is yours to take with you. Second, it runs inside the tools you already use: 36 API endpoints across 11 categories exposing more than 150 property data attributes, plus an MCP server, so you can ask questions of your own property data directly in ChatGPT or Claude, built on open standards with no platform lock-in.

Agencies already working with us include Hunters, Northwood, Your Move, Lomond, Linley & Simpson and LSL. Across our client base, for every £1 spent, clients average £10.46 back.

Ready to see the rest of it? Propertymark members can start with a free basic report on their next Connect referral. For the full platform, including the landlord database and market analysis, talk to us at propalt.co.uk. API access starts free, with paid plans from £49 per month at propalt.ai/pricing.

PRESS COVERAGE

1. Property Industry Eye (21 August 2026). 'Partnership gives agents access to free material information reports.' https://propertyindustryeye.com/partnership-gives-agents-access-to-free-material-information-reports/
2. The Negotiator (21 August 2026). 'Free material information reports added to Propertymark's referral platform.' https://thenegotiator.co.uk/news/products-services-news/free-material-information-reports-added-to-propertymarks-referral-platform/

BACKGROUND SOURCES

3. Propertymark (9 May 2025). 'Material Information guidance withdrawn as the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act takes over.' https://www.propertymark.co.uk/resource/material-information-guidance-withdrawn-as-the-digital-markets-competition-and-consumers-act-takes-over.html
4. legislation.gov.uk (March 2025). SI 2025/272. Confirms the DMCCA 2024 unfair trading provisions in force 6 April 2025. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/272/made
5. HouseCheckup. 'Material information.' CMA as primary enforcer from 6 April 2025; a misleading omission can be an infringement regardless of whether it changed a particular buyer's decision; fines up to 10 per cent of global annual turnover plus personal penalties for accessories. https://housecheckup.co.uk/material-information
6. MHCLG (19 June 2026). 'Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap.' Phased programme to end of 2029; listing information guidance during 2026; upfront information drawn from trusted data sources. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/home-buying-and-selling-reform/outcome/home-buying-and-selling-reform-roadmap
7. Propalt (August 2026). Product overview. 29 million properties across England and Wales; eight authoritative sources named; 36 API endpoints across 11 categories; 150+ property data attributes; 24 hour refresh cadence. https://propalt.ai/product/overview
8. Propalt (August 2026). API pricing. Free tier at £0 with 500 credits per month; Developer plan £49 per month. https://propalt.ai/pricing
9. MHCLG. Home buying and selling reform consultation, question 8. Respondent support by material information category: tenure 56%, sewerage 56%, ground rent and service charge 54%, water supply 51%, parking 51%, council tax 47%, rights and easements 47%. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/home-buying-and-selling-reform