Local Housing Allowance rate
lha_rateLocal Housing Allowance for a postcode and bedroom category — the ceiling on housing benefit, and therefore the effective rent floor for a benefit-funded tenancy. Nothing else in this API tells you what the state will pay for a property.
Same call over REST
Housing LHA rate/v1/housing/lha-rateNot connected yet? Connect your assistant. Sign in with your MarketCode account; no API key needed.
Reference
What lha_rate answers
THE RATE IS WEEKLY. rate_unit says gbp_per_week and the figure is exactly as the rate-setting bodies publish it. Comparing it against a monthly rent — from market_facts rental_value, or a listing's monthly_rent — understates it by about 4.33x. Convert with 52/12, NOT by multiplying by 4: a "monthly" figure built from four weeks is 7.7% low and the error is invisible once it is in a spreadsheet.
Resolved through the Broad Rental Market Area containing the postcode, not the local authority — a BRMA is its own geography and they do not align. brma names which one answered, and shared_accommodation_rate is the separate, lower figure for under-35 single claimants.
Needs a FULL postcode (a district is not enough to place a BRMA), and there is no category above 4 bedrooms. Three bodies set these rates: the VOA in England, Rent Service Scotland, and Rent Officers Wales.
Inputs
Before you call it
- postcode
- The postcode must be a full UK postcode ("SE22 8HN"), not a district. Where a tool works at district grain it truncates the postcode itself.
Example
An example call to lha_rate
Use the MarketCode tool lha_rate with {"postcode":"SE22 8HN","bedrooms":2} and show me the result.{
"data": {
"postcode": "SE22 8HN",
"brma_name": "Inner South East London",
"country": "england",
"effective_from": "2026-04-01",
"rates": {
"shared_room": {
"weekly_rate_gbp": 149.59,
"monthly_equivalent_gbp": 648.22
},
"1_bed": {
"weekly_rate_gbp": 298.15,
"monthly_equivalent_gbp": 1291.98
},
"2_bed": {
"weekly_rate_gbp": 356.71,
"monthly_equivalent_gbp": 1545.74
},
"3_bed": {
"weekly_rate_gbp": 448.77,
"monthly_equivalent_gbp": 1944.67
},
"4_bed": {
"weekly_rate_gbp": 604.11,
"monthly_equivalent_gbp": 2617.81
}
},
"source": "voa_lha",
"note": "Weekly rates as published by the VOA. BRMA resolved from the VOA boundary layer, not from the local authority — a BRMA does not follow council boundaries.",
"requested_category": "2_bed",
"requested_rate": {
"weekly_rate_gbp": 356.71,
"monthly_equivalent_gbp": 1545.74
},
"execution_time_ms": 50.1
},
"credits_charged": 0
}A real response, captured from production and trimmed: arrays to three items, long strings shortened, volatile keys dropped.
Inputs
Arguments lha_rate takes
| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| postcode | string | Yes | |
| bedrooms | integer | Yes | One of: 1, 2, 3, 4 |
Response
What comes back
| Field | Type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| data | object | |
| data.postcode | string | SE22 8HN |
| data.brma_name | string | Inner South East London |
| data.country | string | england |
| data.effective_from | string | 2026-04-01 |
| data.rates | object | |
| data.rates.shared_room | object | |
| data.rates.shared_room.weekly_rate_gbp | number | 149.59 |
| data.rates.shared_room.monthly_equivalent_gbp | number | 648.22 |
| data.rates.1_bed | object | |
| data.rates.1_bed.weekly_rate_gbp | number | 298.15 |
| data.rates.1_bed.monthly_equivalent_gbp | number | 1291.98 |
| data.rates.2_bed | object | |
| data.rates.2_bed.weekly_rate_gbp | number | 356.71 |
| data.rates.2_bed.monthly_equivalent_gbp | number | 1545.74 |
| data.rates.3_bed | object | |
| data.rates.3_bed.weekly_rate_gbp | number | 448.77 |
| data.rates.3_bed.monthly_equivalent_gbp | number | 1944.67 |
| data.rates.4_bed | object | |
| data.rates.4_bed.weekly_rate_gbp | number | 604.11 |
| data.rates.4_bed.monthly_equivalent_gbp | number | 2617.81 |
| data.source | string | voa_lha |
| data.note | string | Weekly rates as published by the VOA. BRMA resol |
| data.requested_category | string | 2_bed |
| data.requested_rate | object | |
| data.requested_rate.weekly_rate_gbp | number | 356.71 |
| data.requested_rate.monthly_equivalent_gbp | number | 1545.74 |
| data.execution_time_ms | number | 50.1 |
| credits_charged | integer | 0 |
Fields observed in the example response above; a field the example did not exercise is not listed.
Usage
How to run lha_rate in your assistant
Ask your assistant in plain English, for example:
"Use the MarketCode tool lha_rate for <address or area>.
Show the result and the credits charged."
The arguments the assistant will send, for the example on this page:
{"postcode":"SE22 8HN","bedrooms":2}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
lha_rate is free over MCP and over REST, and the two surfaces share one credit balance. Free calls need a signed-in account or an API key and appear in your usage, but they never touch your balance.
Credits are granted on sign-up and bought in packs; the pricing page lists every call.
Sources
- VOA, Rent Service Scotland and Rent Officers Wales
Local Housing Allowance rates by Broad Rental Market Area
Open Government Licence v3 · Great Britain
Related
Tools used with lha_rate
- Market facts for an areaFree
market_factsPrice, rent, yield and days-on-market by geography × asset class ×Named in the description - Bank of England mortgage ratesFree
mortgage_ratesAverage UK mortgage rates from the Bank of England: 2-year fixed, 3-year fixed at 75% LTV, and the standard variable rate.Same category
Glossary
Terms used here
- Gross yield: Annual rent as a percentage of price, before costs; net yield deducts costs. MarketCode computes gross yield from listing rents and prices and reports net yield only where an auctioneer quoted one.
- Local Housing Allowance (LHA): The maximum housing benefit for private tenants, set weekly per bedroom category for each Broad Rental Market Area; the effective rent floor for a benefit-funded tenancy.
FAQ
Questions about lha_rate
How much does `lha_rate` cost?
+
lha_rate is free over MCP and over REST, and the two surfaces share one credit balance. Free calls need a signed-in account or an API key and appear in your usage, but they never touch your balance.
Which assistants can run `lha_rate`?
+
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?
+
Read from VOA, Rent Service Scotland and Rent Officers Wales LHA rates.
Does `lha_rate` 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 lha_rate in your assistant.
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