Properties
The property register holds every property the council owns, leases or manages, except housing stock.
How properties fit together
Properties form a hierarchy. Each property can be part of another:
An estate's record, with its location and photo.
- Estate: a group of sites managed together, such as an industrial estate.
- Site: one piece of land, which can hold buildings.
- Building: a building on a site.
- Lettable unit: a part of a building that can be let, such as a shop or office suite.
- Land parcel: land without buildings, such as a field or car park.
A property's page lists its parts. Lettable parts are shown in bold.
Key facts
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Reference | The council's unique asset reference. |
| UPRN / USRN | The national Unique Property and Unique Street Reference Numbers. They link PHAEMA to GIS, council tax, business rates and other systems. |
| Holding purpose | Why the council holds it: operational, investment, community, surplus, or held for disposal. |
| Tenure | Freehold, leasehold, other, or none (managed but not owned). |
| Occupation | Occupied by the council, let, partly let, vacant, or not applicable. |
| Managing surveyor | The surveyor responsible. Surveyors can change the properties they manage (see roles). Events on the property's leases are assigned to them. |
| Exclude from open data | Tick for sensitive properties so they are left out of any published asset list. |
| Disposed of, disposal price | When the council sold or transferred it, and for how much. A disposed property is kept for its history but left out of open data. Usually recorded from a disposal project's completion checklist. |
| Site hazards | What anyone visiting should know first, such as fragile roofs, confined spaces, lone working or dogs. Shown on cases, jobs and valuations for the property and everything within it. |
The register, searched for Northfield.
Floor areas
PHAEMA records gross internal area (GIA) and net internal area (NIA) in square metres, and site area in hectares. The property page shows how the floor area is made up:
- total GIA and NIA of the buildings within;
- total NIA of the lettable parts;
- non-lettable area: GIA less lettable NIA, which covers common parts, circulation, plant and walls;
- net to gross: lettable NIA as a percentage of GIA.
How areas were measured
RICS asks for the measurement basis to be recorded. For each property, record in Edit this property:
- measured to: the RICS Code of Measuring Practice (6th edition) or IPMS: All Buildings;
- the source: a measured survey, drawings, a lease or title plan, or an estimate;
- the date the areas were measured.
Estimated areas are marked as estimates wherever they are shown. You can also record the gross external area (GEA), used for planning, insurance and some valuations. The ready-made report Floor areas with no measurement basis lists properties still to be checked.
Photos
Add photos in Edit this property or add photos. They are resized and their location data removed when uploaded. Select a photo on the property page to see it full size.
Titles
Land Registry titles are linked to properties. A title can hold a PDF of the register and plan. Administrators manage titles. See also Land Registry boundaries.
Leases on a property
The property page lists the leases and licences that include it. See leases and licences.
Projects on a property
The property page lists the projects it is part of, including those of the estate or building it belongs to. Confidential projects are listed only for their team and administrators.
Worked example
In the demonstration data, DM-N01 Northfield Business Park is an estate. Its parts are the Hangar block (DM-N01-B01, units 1 to 5), the Workshop block (DM-N01-B02, units 6 to 10) and the estate roads (DM-N01-L01). Units 4 and 10 are vacant, so the estate shows as partly let.
Lena Chen is the managing surveyor of DM-N01, so she also manages every block and unit within it: their events are assigned to her and she can change them. DM-N06 Former Northfield bus depot has no managing surveyor (filter the register by Managing surveyor: Nobody to find it) and records site hazards, which appear on every case, job and valuation for it.