Where to find your home's 1991 value — every free source

Why 1991, not today

Your band reflects what your property would have sold for on 1 April 1991 (England and Scotland) or 1 April 2003 (Wales) — not what it's worth in 2026. That's why a modern Zoopla estimate is worthless as evidence: the VOA explicitly rejects it. What you need is a figure anchored to the valuation date. The good news is you can assemble one for free.

Check your 1991 value now

1. Land Registry Price Paid Data (free, from January 1995)

HM Land Registry's Price Paid Data search tool is free and covers every property sale in England and Wales since January 1995. Type in the address or postcode of a comparable home and, if it sold from 1995 onwards, you'll get the real sale price and date. It doesn't reach back to 1991 itself, but an early-1995 sale of a comparable home, adjusted back to 1991, gives a defensible estimate.

2. Nationwide's house price calculator — turn that sale into a 1991 figure

Once you've got a sale price and date from Land Registry, Nationwide's house price calculator does the conversion for you — enter the price and the sale date, and it works out what that home would have been worth in an earlier year, using regional house-price data going back to 1952. Pair the result with the comparable's current band and you have a credible, valuation-date figure. The calculator's estimate on its own, with no real comparable sale behind it, is not accepted — it has to anchor an actual property.

3. The British Newspaper Archive (1989–1992 listings)

For sales before 1995, the British Newspaper Archive holds local newspaper property pages from the early 1990s — frequently with asking prices for homes on your street. It's a paid subscription, but many libraries provide free access, and one relevant listing is worth more than any modern estimate.

4. Long-established local estate agents

Agents who've traded since the early 1990s sometimes keep archive particulars. A polite phone call or email costs nothing and occasionally turns up a genuine 1991 sale sheet for a comparable.

What the VOA will NOT accept

• Rightmove / Zoopla / Nethouseprices "estimates" — modern automated valuations, explicitly rejected.
• A house-price index quoted on its own.
• Your own purchase price (unless it happens to be a pre-1995 comparable sale).
• The cost of recent work.

The full list is in what evidence the VOA accepts.

Don't have a price? You may not need one

A 1991 price is one route in — but it's not the only one, and often not even the strongest. The evidence the VOA asks for first is the bands of comparable homes, free on the VOA site. If six similar neighbours sit a band below you, that already implies your valuation-date value was lower than the VOA recorded, with no price hunt required (see how to find comparables). Use a 1991 price to reinforce the neighbours evidence, not to replace it.

Map your figure to a band

Once you have a valuation-date estimate, check which band it falls into — England and Scotland thresholds are in bands explained; Welsh 2003 thresholds are in the Wales guide. If your estimate sits a band below your current one, that's your case.

Free vs the £39 pack

Every source above is free, and the method is genuinely doable in an afternoon. Our £39 pack does the same work — it models the valuation-date figure for your property and assembles the comparable evidence — automatically, if you'd rather not do it by hand. Either way, start with the free check.