Physical form of buildings
building_physicalPhysical form of the buildings a set of UPRNs sit in: height, volume, footprint area, floor count, construction and roof material, basement, green roof, solar panels, and the residential/commercial unit mix.
Same call over REST
Building physical/v1/buildings/physicalNot connected yet? Connect your assistant. Sign in with your MarketCode account; no API key needed.
Reference
What building_physical answers
year_built and num_floors are thinly populated and come back null rather than estimated — treat null as unknown, not as absent.
UK only.
Inputs
Before you call it
- uprns
- A UPRN is the Unique Property Reference Number every UK address carries. Narrow the address with address_autocomplete, which is free, then address_resolve returns the UPRN for 8 credits. property_summary and address_by_postcode return UPRNs too.
Example
An example call to building_physical
Use the MarketCode tool building_physical with {"uprns":["200003443835"]} and show me the result.{
"buildings": [
{
"building_id": "<string>",
"uprn": 0,
"height_m_above_sea_level": 0,
"building_height_m": "<string>",
"volume_m3": 0,
"total_footprint_area_m2": "<string>",
"num_floors": 0,
"construction_material": "<string>",
"roof_material": "<string>",
"roof_shape": "<string>",
"basement_presence": "<string>",
"green_roof_presence": "<string>",
"solar_panel_presence": "<string>",
"building_use_primary": "<string>",
"year_built": null,
"n_units": 0,
"n_residential_units": 0,
"n_commercial_units": 0,
"n_hmo_units": 0
}
],
"count": 0,
"coverage_note": "<string>",
"match_note": "<string>",
"height_note": "<string>",
"credits_charged": 0
}Shape only. This call returns licensed records, so the keys are real and every value is a placeholder of its type.
Inputs
Arguments building_physical takes
| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| uprns | integer[] | Yes |
Response
What comes back
| Field | Type |
|---|---|
| buildings | array |
| buildings[].building_id | string |
| buildings[].uprn | integer |
| buildings[].height_m_above_sea_level | number |
| buildings[].building_height_m | string |
| buildings[].volume_m3 | number |
| buildings[].total_footprint_area_m2 | string |
| buildings[].num_floors | integer |
| buildings[].construction_material | string |
| buildings[].roof_material | string |
| buildings[].roof_shape | string |
| buildings[].basement_presence | string |
| buildings[].green_roof_presence | string |
| buildings[].solar_panel_presence | string |
| buildings[].building_use_primary | string |
| buildings[].year_built | null |
| buildings[].n_units | integer |
| buildings[].n_residential_units | integer |
| buildings[].n_commercial_units | integer |
| buildings[].n_hmo_units | integer |
| count | integer |
| coverage_note | string |
| match_note | string |
| height_note | string |
| credits_charged | integer |
Fields observed in the example response above; a field the example did not exercise is not listed.
Usage
How to run building_physical in your assistant
Ask your assistant in plain English, for example:
"Use the MarketCode tool building_physical for <address or area>.
Show the result and the credits charged."
The arguments the assistant will send, for the example on this page:
{"uprns":["200003443835"]}The connect steps for Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor and Claude Code are on the MCP page.
Price and licence
What it costs, and where the data comes from
building_physical costs 3 credits per successful call over MCP and over REST, and the two surfaces share one credit balance.
The price covers licensed records in the response, from Ordnance Survey. A call that fails is not charged.
Credits are granted on sign-up and bought in packs; the pricing page lists every call.
Sources
- Ordnance Survey
National Geographic Database (buildings, land and sites)
Used under licence from Ordnance Survey · Great Britain
Related
Tools used with building_physical
- Built-stock profile of an areaFree
area_stock_profileComposition of the built stock in an area: unit counts, HMO share, mixed-use share, median building height and footprint, solar penetration.Same category - Hex-binned density for mapsFree
h3_densityHex-binned stock and transaction density for map layers, at H3 resolution 8.Same category - Mixed-use buildings in an area6 credits
mixed_use_buildingsBuildings holding BOTH residential and commercial units — the conversion and permitted-development cohort.Same category - Plot utilisation of land parcels6 credits
plot_utilisationLand parcels by size and how much of them is built on. Set `max_built_coverage` to 0.2 to find largely undeveloped plots.Same category
Glossary
Terms used here
- Floor area: The internal area of a property in square metres, taken from its energy certificate or measured from building geometry; the input the valuation model cannot do without.
- Mixed-use building: A building that holds both residential and commercial units; a property of the building's unit mix rather than of any single unit, and the conversion cohort.
FAQ
Questions about building_physical
How much does `building_physical` cost?
+
building_physical costs 3 credits per successful call over MCP and over REST, and the two surfaces share one credit balance. The price covers licensed records in the response, from Ordnance Survey. A call that fails is not charged.
Do I need to resolve the address first?
+
Yes. building_physical takes a UPRN, not an address. Start with address_autocomplete (free) to narrow the address, then address_resolve (8 credits) to get the UPRN. An assistant with the MarketCode skills installed does both steps on its own.
Which assistants can run `building_physical`?
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Any MCP client: Claude (claude.ai, Claude Desktop, Claude Code), ChatGPT in developer mode, Codex and Cursor, each documented on the MCP page. You sign in with your MarketCode account over OAuth; there is no key to paste, and the connection is read-only.
Where does the data come from?
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Read from Ordnance Survey NGD. Coverage is the UK.
Can I store or republish the results?
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The response includes records we license from Ordnance Survey. Use them in your own analysis, reports and products; bulk redistribution of the raw records or building a competing dataset from them is not covered. Ask us if you need a redistribution licence.
Does `building_physical` change anything?
+
No. The tool is annotated read-only on the server, so it never writes to your data or ours and an assistant can call it without a confirmation step.
Try building_physical in your assistant.
30-minute call. We'll connect your assistant live on a real address.