BASPI Explained: The Buyer's and Seller's Property Information Standard

What BASPI Is

BASPI stands for Buyer's and Seller's Property Information. It is a standardised data specification for property information that was developed by a coalition of industry bodies, including the Home Buying and Selling Group (HBSG), conveyancers, estate agents, and proptech companies, to establish a common format for upfront property information.

The core idea is that the information needed to progress a property transaction — details about the property, its services, its history, any disputes or notices, and the seller's knowledge of defects and alterations — should be assembled at the start of the process and shared in a standardised digital format, rather than emerging piecemeal during conveyancing.

BASPI is not a legal requirement. It is an industry standard, analogous to a data schema, that defines what data should be in an upfront information pack and how it should be structured so that it can be exchanged digitally between platforms.

The BASPI Data Set

The BASPI specification covers two sections:

**Part 1: Facts about the property** — This section contains objective data points sourced from official registers:

• Address (UPRN where available)
• Tenure (freehold, leasehold, or commonhold)
• Title number
• Current occupancy (owner occupied, let, or vacant)
• EPC rating and certificate details
• Council tax band
• Flood risk
• Listed building status
• Conservation area status
• Planning designations

Many of these data points can be pre-populated automatically from official sources (HMLR, EPC Register, Environment Agency, Historic England) without the seller needing to provide them manually. This is one of BASPI's significant advantages — reducing the burden on sellers and improving accuracy compared with manually completed forms.

**Part 2: Seller's knowledge** — This section captures information that only the seller can provide:

• Details of alterations and works carried out (with or without planning permission and building regulations consent)
• Known disputes, complaints, or notices
• Rights of way, easements, and access arrangements
• Service and utility information (heating type, broadband, parking)
• Lease information (for leasehold properties)
• Details of any guarantees, warranties, or insurance policies
• Fixtures and fittings included in the sale

This section is analogous to the existing TA6 Property Information Form used in traditional conveyancing, but structured to allow digital exchange.

How BASPI Relates to Material Information

National Trading Standards' Material Information guidance (Parts A, B, and C, rolled out from 2023 onwards) requires estate agents to obtain and display specified information about a property at the point of listing. The material information requirements cover many of the same data points as BASPI Part 1.

BASPI provides a standardised way of structuring and exchanging this data, meaning that information assembled for a listing can be passed through to conveyancers, portals, and other parties in a consistent digital format. In practice, several proptech platforms — including Movebutler, Veya, and others — are using BASPI-compatible data structures in their products.

The Transaction Speed Argument

The case for upfront property information — and by extension for BASPI — rests on a well-documented problem: UK residential transactions take too long and have too high a fall-through rate. The average transaction takes four to five months in England and Wales; approximately 30% of agreed sales fall through before completion.

A significant proportion of this delay and fall-through is attributable to information gaps — buyers or their conveyancers discovering late in the process something about the property (a short lease, a restrictive covenant, a planning issue) that either causes them to withdraw or requires prolonged negotiation to resolve. BASPI-based upfront information packs are designed to front-load this disclosure, so that buyers are informed before they commit rather than after.

Who Uses BASPI in Practice

As of early 2026, BASPI adoption is growing but not yet universal. Platforms and firms using BASPI-compatible data structures include:

• Digital logbook platforms (Movebutler, Property Passport UK, Veya and others)
• Several large conveyancing firms that have adopted digital case management
• A growing number of estate agents who have integrated upfront information tools

Adoption is not yet mandated and has not been adopted uniformly across the market. Traditional solicitor firms relying on TA6 paper forms are still common. The direction of travel is clearly towards BASPI-compatible digital data exchange, particularly as Material Information requirements tighten and digital conveyancing platforms mature.

What It Means for Buyers

If you are buying a property where the seller has prepared a BASPI-compatible upfront information pack, you will have access to key property data before you make an offer, rather than weeks into conveyancing. This allows more informed decision-making and should reduce the likelihood of late-stage surprises.

If a BASPI pack is not available, Property Passport UK provides free access to the official data layer — EPC, flood, title tenure, heritage — so you can at least check the facts about the property before committing.