Question 1

What is Parcela?

Accepted Answer

Parcela is an institutional property due-diligence platform covering the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. From a single postcode it builds a notarial-grade report in under 30 seconds: title extent, planning, risks, comparables, ESG and an AI narrative.

Question 2

How does the UK identifier work — is there a parcel number?

Accepted Answer

The UK has no continental-style cadastre, so there is no universal open parcel number or open title-polygon service. You enter a postcode (e.g. DA10 1AB) or a UPRN; Parcela resolves it via postcodes.io to the correct nation, local authority and a map centroid, and shows an indicative building footprint (OpenStreetMap) for the plot. The registered-title boundary and number are obtained from HM Land Registry (England & Wales), Registers of Scotland, or Land & Property Services (Northern Ireland) as part of due diligence — Parcela deep-links you to the correct registry.

Question 3

Why does the UK behave as one country with four systems?

Accepted Answer

The UK is one sovereign state but four devolved planning, flood, heritage and land-registration regimes. England uses the NPPF and the Environment Agency; Scotland uses NPF4, Registers of Scotland and SEPA; Wales uses Future Wales, Natural Resources Wales and Cadw; Northern Ireland uses its own Local Development Plans, DfI Rivers and the Irish Grid coordinate system (EPSG:29902, not the British National Grid). Parcela detects the nation from the postcode and routes every query to the correct authority automatically.

Question 4

Does Parcela replace a conveyancing search or the title register?

Accepted Answer

No. The Parcela report is a technical pre-assessment for an investment or purchase decision. The official HM Land Registry / Registers of Scotland title register (ownership and charges), the local authority conveyancing search (LLC1 + CON29), a CON29M coal-mining search where relevant, and any specialist survey remain necessary before exchange. Parcela consolidates the open public data so you enter those steps already informed.

Question 5

Does Parcela use the Ordnance Survey Data Hub API?

Accepted Answer

No. Parcela uses only openly licensed data — Open Government Licence v3.0 (covering HM Land Registry INSPIRE polygons, Environment Agency flood, BGS geology, the Coal Authority, planning.data.gov.uk and OS OpenData products such as OS Open Zoomstack and OS Terrain 50) and OpenStreetMap under the ODbL. The OS Data Hub premium API and other PSGA-restricted products are deliberately not used, so every layer is cleared for commercial reuse with attribution.

Question 6

How does Parcela assess flood risk?

Accepted Answer

Flood is the most-consulted planning constraint in the UK. Parcela overlays the statutory map for the relevant nation: the Environment Agency Flood Map for Planning (Flood Zones 2 & 3, plus the NaFRA2 national risk model) in England, SEPA in Scotland, Natural Resources Wales in Wales, and DfI Rivers in Northern Ireland. It flags whether the plot falls in a higher-probability zone — the trigger for the Sequential Test and, potentially, the Exception Test.

Question 7

What about coal mining, radon and ground stability?

Accepted Answer

Across the coalfields (north-east and north-west England, south Wales, the central belt of Scotland) Parcela surfaces the Coal Authority Development High Risk Area — the CON29M coal-search trigger. It cross-references BGS GeoSure ground-stability susceptibility (landslides, shrink-swell clay, soluble rocks, collapsible and compressible ground) and the UKHSA/BGS radon potential map, which governs whether BR 211 radon protective measures are required in new build.

Question 8

What is the National Heritage List and how does Parcela use it?

Accepted Answer

The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) records listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and World Heritage Sites; Historic Environment Scotland, Cadw (Wales) and the DfC Historic Environment Division (NI) hold the equivalents. Parcela cross-references the plot against these registers and the relevant conservation-area boundaries, flagging where listed-building consent or conservation-area screening would apply.

Question 9

What is biodiversity net gain (BNG)?

Accepted Answer

Biodiversity net gain has been mandatory for most development in England since 2024 — a minimum 10% measurable improvement in biodiversity, secured for 30 years. Parcela flags designated sites (SSSI / SAC / SPA / Ramsar) from Natural England and the devolved agencies that trigger Habitats Regulations Assessment screening and feed the BNG baseline.

Question 10

Which terrain and elevation data does Parcela use in the UK?

Accepted Answer

The Environment Agency National LIDAR Programme composite (1 m, England, OGL) provides high-resolution slope and cross-section analysis — one of the densest open LiDAR coverages in Europe — with OS Terrain 50 (OS OpenData, 50 m grid) as the GB-wide fallback DTM. Heights are referenced to Ordnance Datum Newlyn (ODN).

Question 11

Which coordinate systems does the UK use?

Accepted Answer

Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales) uses OSGB36 / British National Grid (EPSG:27700). Northern Ireland uses the Irish Grid (EPSG:29902 / TM65) — a different datum. Web tile services and our GeoJSON cache speak Web Mercator (EPSG:3857) and WGS84 (EPSG:4326). Parcela forks the CRS by resolved nation automatically.

Question 12

How does Parcela appraise a development opportunity?

Accepted Answer

A five-step flow: 1) Envelope first — what is legally developable from the adopted Local Plan / LDP. 2) Auto-sized A–D scenarios with units, parking and policy compliance. 3) A six-axis risk matrix (Planning, Flood, Environment, Services, Legal, Market). 4) An IRR projection — a 36-month DCF (acquisition, build to Building Regulations, fees, finance, sales, exit) in GBP. 5) A one-page, capital-weighted investment memo, SHA-256 signed.

Question 13

What does Parcela offer a UK lender or fund?

Accepted Answer

The Enterprise tier embeds Parcela as the technical DD engine in a credit-origination flow: a REST API call at the decision point, six-axis risk scoring in sub-500 ms, a SHA-256-signed DD report for the file, planning alerts for collateral review, a dedicated-schema data-isolation model and SSO to the corporate directory (Azure AD / Okta).

Question 14

How does Parcela protect personal data?

Accepted Answer

Plot data is land data, not personal data. Owner names come only from legally accessible public registers (HM Land Registry). There is no PII beyond what is already public. UK GDPR + Data Protection Act 2018 compliant: cached records on Supabase with UK/EU hosting, or dedicated hosting for Enterprise, with role-based access.

Question 15

Does Parcela have a public API?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A REST API at /api/v1/uk covering title extent, planning, risks, comparables and the AI narrative. Bearer key via /settings/api, OpenAPI 3.1 at /api/v1/openapi.json, TypeScript client via npm install @parcela/sdk. Enterprise adds webhooks (dd_report.complete, plan_change.detected), batch portfolio DD and a dedicated SLA.

Question 16

What pricing is available?

Accepted Answer

Free (Open Beta) £0 — essential panels, map and a limited number of reports per month. Pay-per-report: a Property Report from £99, a Due Diligence report from £299 — one-off, no subscription. For regular use, monthly packs (Starter, Professional, Enterprise) cut the per-report price by 25–60%. White-label, REST API and SSO sit in the Professional and Enterprise plans (see /uk/enterprise). All prices exclude VAT; volume discounts apply on the monthly packs.

Question 17

Does Parcela cover the Republic of Ireland?

Accepted Answer

No. The Republic of Ireland is a separate sovereign state with its own euro currency, Tailte Éireann cadastre and the Irish Transverse Mercator coordinate system (EPSG:2157) — it is not part of the United Kingdom and never appears under /uk. The UK market covers England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland only, all priced in pounds sterling.

Question 18

Which markets does Parcela cover?

Accepted Answer

Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, Spain and the United Kingdom (13 countries). For the UK: HM Land Registry / Registers of Scotland / LPS cadastre, OS OpenData + OpenStreetMap basemaps, Environment Agency / SEPA / NRW / DfI flood, BGS 1:50k geology + GeoSure, Coal Authority, UKHSA/BGS radon, planning.data.gov.uk, Historic England / HES / Cadw / DfC heritage, and EU JRC PVGIS solar.

Question 19

What sets Parcela apart from other UK property-data platforms?

Accepted Answer

1. Multi-market, one interface — the same flow across thirteen countries with local language and legal references. 2. Automated risk scoring — most platforms display layers; Parcela interprets them into a quantitative six-axis matrix with an IRR projection and AI narrative. 3. SHA-256-signed DD reports — immutable, auditable PDFs. 4. White-label first. 5. AI where it matters — Claude Vision for title-plan extracts, Claude Opus for narratives. 6. A genuinely usable free plan.