API Changelog
Every change to the Vepler API — new endpoints, improvements, fixes and deprecations — in plain language, release by release.
The API follows Semantic Versioning. This changelog follows Keep a Changelog.
Subscribe via RSSPlanning applications: image galleries, in-browser documents, and enrichment
The planning API can now return an application's image gallery, directly-renderable document files and extracted text, and processing insight — all through new opt-in include options.
More planning applications return coordinates and decision dates
More planning applications now carry a site point, so spatial search finds them and returns distances, and decision dates are available to filter and sort on across the planning endpoints.
Geo bias and restrict on search suggest
Search suggest can now bias or restrict autocomplete to a centre point — pass lat and lng, then choose a soft proximity preference or a hard radius cutoff. Each result returns its distance.
Census tile, whole-country and breaks endpoints now accept requests
Census flat-file endpoints for tiles, whole-country values and ckmeans breaks now bind the category path parameter correctly and accept requests instead of returning 400.
Census flat-file endpoints now read the categoryCode path segment correctly
The categoryCode segment on the census CSV and JSON flat-file endpoints was read as empty when the .csv or .json suffix was present, returning a 400; it now resolves correctly.
Census tile and whole-level CSV endpoints now return 404 for invalid geotype and category combinations
Census CSV tile and whole-level endpoints now return 404 for an unknown category or a geotype the category is not served at, instead of an ambiguous empty 200.
Census catalogue now reflects real coverage and hides cross-nation phantom topics
The census catalogue and variable endpoints now list only topics that are actually served, report geography levels from real coverage, and tag every variable with a normalised theme.
England & Wales census now serves MSOA, LAD, region and country choropleths
England & Wales census datasets now serve coarse geography levels (msoa, lad, region, country) across the tile, whole-country and breaks endpoints, not just lsoa.
More planning applications now carry site geometry and case details; Scotland census ratios corrected
Planning applications from more local authorities now return site coordinates, boundaries and case details. Census ratios for Scotland geographies are now computed against the correct denominator.
Air quality /point now resolves from a 20m modelled surface inside Greater London
Inside the Greater London LAEI extent, the air-quality point endpoint now resolves NO2, PM10 and PM2.5 from a 20m modelled annual-mean surface instead of the 1km cell plus decay overlay.
Prosperity Index now returns a valid ISO 8601 computedAt timestamp
The computedAt field on the Prosperity Index endpoint now returns a strict ISO 8601 UTC timestamp, so it passes datetime validation and deserialises cleanly in the SDKs.
Prosperity Index moves to its own endpoint, keyed by small-area code
New endpoint returns the Vepler Prosperity Index by small-area code, with deciles, dimensions and per-indicator sources. The embedded prosperity object is removed from property responses.
Census API: datasets, area profiles, custom rollups and choropleth tiles
New /v1/census product for UK census demographics — datasets, variables, area profiles, custom-area rollups and ONS-format choropleth tiles. Property prosperity scores gain indicators and a classification.
Find planning applications around a point with the new spatial query filter
Planning query now supports a near filter to retrieve applications within a metre radius of a point, returned closest-first with a distance field on each result.
Property transactions API, opt-in planning extractions, and richer air-quality responses
New property transactions endpoints, opt-in structured planning extractions via the include parameter, and added air-quality fields for the nearest monitoring station and regulatory-zone charges.
Listing tenure is now a canonical enum, with the original string preserved
Advanced listing search now returns a canonical tenure.type enum normalised from the raw feed, plus a new tenure.typeRaw field holding the original source string.
Advanced listing search: geographic, field-level and sorted queries over aggregated listings
New POST /v1/listings/query/advanced endpoint searches aggregated property listings with geographic area filters, a structured field query, sorting, pagination and sparse fieldsets.
Listings no longer fail to refresh when source data repeats a feature
Listings whose source data repeated a structured feature key could fail to refresh, leaving stale or missing data. These listings now refresh correctly and return current features.
Coordinate-exact air-quality endpoint, reworked air-quality query contract, and schools reference catalogues
New air-quality point endpoint with property-decay overlay, a reworked air-quality query contract (0-100 score, renamed attributes), new schools reference endpoints, and a consistent v2 list envelope on safety routes.
Air-quality query API, expanded safety endpoints, and field-level access control on buildings
New air-quality query endpoint, expanded safety crime/catalog/geography endpoints, and field-level access control on the buildings API that gates source and structural attributes behind permissions.
Buildings API: building footprints and characteristics
New Buildings product exposes building footprints, structure, construction, roof and basement data with lookup, search, batch, spatial and aggregation endpoints.
Schools API reworked: provider-keyed lookups, flexible query, and catchment matching
The Schools API moves to a provider-keyed, query-body shape and gains catchment: per-school polygons, nationwide coverage, and catchment-enriched school queries by UPRN or point.
Within-areas now returns the documented response envelope and GSS code field
The areas-within endpoint now returns the documented success/result envelope, with each area's GSS code in the code field instead of id.
Planning extractions, document type split, and Local Planning Authority in geography
Planning applications can now return citation-backed structured extractions via include=extractions. Document type is split into category and detailed sub-type, and address geography now carries the Local Planning Authority.
Async title deed purchase with AI extraction, and planning policy search retired
Added async title deed purchase plus an extraction polling endpoint. Removed the planning policy search endpoint.
Richer valuation analysis: hedonic adjustments, confidence decomposition, and price spread
The detailed valuation analysis response now exposes per-comparable hedonic adjustments, RICS-aligned confidence decomposition, and price spread reliability metrics.
Specific place names now rank above generic qualifiers in location autocomplete
Compound location queries on the suggest endpoint now boost the specific place name over generic qualifiers like "city centre" or "north", improving result ordering.