DocsAPI Reference · Data Bank
Refresh, Recency and History
Three separate questions determine how recent a figure is: how often its source publishes, which observation period the product represents, and when an accepted API release becomes available. A fresh API response does not necessarily contain a new underlying observation.
Refresh frequency describes the product's update cycle. Publication depends on source availability and validation; any service-level commitments are set out in your service agreement.
Property Markets
T denotes the property release month. T-3 means the monthly endpoint three months earlier: a September release targets June. Rolling windows end on the last day of that endpoint month.
| Product | Dataset | Observation frequency | Window | Target recency and refresh |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Residential Sales Activity | market_activity | Monthly endpoints | 12 months | T-3; refresh with accepted monthly property data. |
| Estimated Price per Square Metre | market_activity | Monthly endpoints | 12 months | T-3; refresh with accepted monthly property data. |
| Sales by National Price Band | price_bands | Monthly endpoints | 12 months | T-3; thresholds and observations belong to the same window. |
| Estimated Monthly Rent | rental_market | Monthly endpoints | 12-month rental basis | Latest accepted rental month, potentially T-1/T-2; depends on the actual rental publication. |
| Estimated Property Values | rental_market | Monthly endpoints | 24 months | T-3 capital endpoint; not advanced automatically when newer rent arrives. |
| Estimated Gross Rental Yield | rental_market | Monthly endpoints | 12-month rent / 24-month capital | Latest compatible rent/capital pair; input gap 0-2 months, separately disclosed. |
| New-Build Price Differential | new_build_price_differential | Monthly endpoints | 36 months | T-3; selective area/type coverage. |
| Estimated New-Build Deliveries | new_build_deliveries | Monthly endpoints | 12 months | T-3; administrative delivery estimate. |
| New-Build Share of Sales | new_build_sales_share | Monthly endpoints | 12 months | T-3; revisable transaction composition. |
| Estimated Deliveries by Development Size | development_deliveries | Monthly endpoints | 12-month deliveries | T-3; classification reflects available cluster evidence through the endpoint. |
PPD-dependent products follow the monthly property release cycle. Rental inputs may refresh separately; a compatible rental/yield supplement does not make the capital evidence newer. Rates do not wait for the property release cycle.
Releases can revise historical observations as well as add a latest month. Do not implement refresh as an append-only assumption. Retain release provenance and use a consistent release for each extraction.
Rates and Financing
Daily products follow available business-day observations or snapshots. Monthly mortgage benchmarks retain their true observation month even when checked alongside daily rates. There is no common T-2/T-3 label for this family.
| Product | Dataset | Observation or snapshot frequency | Update and recency interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank Rate | bank_rate | Daily observation dates | Policy rate level; a new date does not imply the policy rate changed. |
| SONIA Overnight Rate | sonia_overnight | Business-day observations | Latest published overnight-rate observation, not an intraday quote. |
| SONIA Compounded Index | sonia_compounded_index | Business-day observations | Latest published index observation. |
| Sterling OIS Spot Curve | ois_spot_curve | Daily snapshots | Latest accepted available fitted curve date. |
| Sterling OIS Instantaneous Forward Curve | ois_forward_curve | Daily snapshots | Latest accepted available fitted curve date. |
| Indicative Sterling Swap Rates | indicative_swap_rates | Daily snapshots | Recomputed from accepted curve inputs; retain the curve date. |
| Indicative Forward-Starting Swap Rates | forward_starting_swap_rates | Daily snapshots | Forward surface from the dated curve, not future realised observations. |
| Nominal Gilt Spot Curve | nominal_gilt_spot_curve | Daily snapshots | Latest available accepted nominal curve. |
| Nominal Gilt Instantaneous Forward Curve | nominal_gilt_forward_curve | Daily snapshots | Latest available accepted nominal forward curve. |
| Real Gilt Spot Curve | real_gilt_spot_curve | Daily snapshots | Latest available accepted real curve; its coverage may differ from nominal. |
| Real Gilt Instantaneous Forward Curve | real_gilt_forward_curve | Daily snapshots | Latest available accepted real forward curve. |
| Market-Implied Inflation | market_implied_inflation | Daily snapshots | Gilt-market inflation compensation, not a monthly CPI observation. |
| Market-Implied Inflation Forward Curve | market_implied_inflation_forward | Daily snapshots | Latest available accepted forward inflation-compensation curve. |
| Quoted Mortgage Rate Benchmarks | mortgage_benchmarks | Monthly observations | Latest published supported benchmark month; not today's lender quote. |
| Mortgage-to-Swap Rate Spread | mortgage_swap_spread | Monthly observations | Monthly mortgage figure and its documented matched reference. |
| Mortgage Reversion Spread to Bank Rate | mortgage_reversion_spread | Monthly observations | Monthly reversion benchmark and Bank Rate comparison. |
| Mortgage-to-Swap Spread History and Averages | mortgage_spread_summary | Monthly-labelled summary | Latest saved summary of matched observations; not a historical summary at every month. |
| SONIA Forward Rate Path | sonia_forward_path | Daily scenario snapshots | Latest saved curve-implied interval path. |
| Bank Rate Scenarios | bank_rate_scenarios | Daily scenario snapshots | Latest saved assumptions; not additional observed policy decisions. |
| Buy-to-Let Refinancing Rate Scenarios | btl_refinancing_scenarios | Daily scenario snapshots | Daily curve inputs can coexist with older monthly mortgage inputs. |
| Mortgage Reversion Rate Scenarios | mortgage_reversion_scenarios | Daily scenario snapshots | Retains the date of the supporting monthly reversion benchmark. |
| Financing Stress Scenarios | financing_stress_scenarios | Daily scenario snapshots | Dated multi-instrument assumptions with instrument-specific intervals. |
Weekends, bank holidays, source delays and validation can leave the latest available observation unchanged. Do not manufacture a Saturday observation by relabelling Friday's rate, or describe an old monthly mortgage observation as newly observed because a scenario used it today.
Historical Availability
Product start dates and actual serving coverage are different. Earlier source data or a product's intended historical span does not guarantee that the API release contains that entire span.
Use /coverage for each required selection. It reports the dates retained in that release; it does not backfill unavailable observations. Curves can have shorter history than scalar rates. mortgage_spread_summary exposes the latest summary per release. The forward path and financing scenario datasets expose saved snapshots, not retrospectively manufactured paths for every date.
Example date ranges are illustrative. Use the selected release's coverage response rather than treating an example's start or end date as a product-history boundary.
Recency Checks in Your Application
Read the observation period, release metadata and any supporting input dates together. Compare like with like: monthly capital estimates need a different recency policy from overnight SONIA. The API does not currently return a universal stale-data flag.
An accepted release is a validated package, not a guarantee that every underlying source published today. If an update fails, a last accepted release can remain available with unchanged dates. Display those dates rather than substituting the current date.