Prices and indices
Rateable value and hereditament
The VOA's assessment of a non-domestic property's open-market annual rent at a fixed valuation date; the unit assessed is a hereditament, and the assessments form the rating list.
Also called: business rates, rateable value, hereditament, rating list.
Definition
Rateable value and hereditament, as the data uses it
Business rates are charged on rateable value, the Valuation Office Agency's estimate of the annual rent a non-domestic property would let for at the antecedent valuation date of the current rating list (1 April 2021 for the 2023 list, 1 April 2024 for the 2026 list). A hereditament is the unit of assessment: a shop, an office suite, a whole building.
MarketCode uses the rating lists for something other than tax. Linking the same hereditaments across the 2010, 2017, 2023 and 2026 lists gives a rent index in four steps for every sector and local authority, including the industrial stock that never appears in sale records. The index is derived from rateable values, not from advertised rents, and it moves in four dated steps; both facts are repeated in every response.
Tools
Tools that return it
Commercial rent index
commercial_rent_index_series()Commercial RENT index from the VOA rating lists — FOUR points, one per list (2010 / 2017 / 2023 / 2026), each dated at that list's antecedent valuation date (2008-04-01, 2015-04-01, 2021-04-01, 2024-04-01), with the 2010 list = 100.
See also
Related terms
- Council tax band: The A to H (A to I in Wales) valuation band the Valuation Office Agency assigns every domestic property, based on its value at 1 April 1991 (2003 in Wales); read from the list, never predicted.
- Hedonic index: A price index that prices the attributes of each property (type, bedrooms, size, location) so that a change in what is on the market does not read as a change in prices; the method behind the asking indices.
FAQ
Questions about rateable value and hereditament
What does Rateable value and hereditament mean?
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The VOA's assessment of a non-domestic property's open-market annual rent at a fixed valuation date; the unit assessed is a hereditament, and the assessments form the rating list.
Which MarketCode tools return rateable value and hereditament?
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Commercial rent index. Each runs as an MCP tool in Claude, ChatGPT, Codex and Cursor and as a REST endpoint with an API key, at the same price.
Is rateable value the same thing?
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Yes. business rates, rateable value, hereditament are other names for what this entry defines; MarketCode uses "Rateable value and hereditament" in its tool descriptions and responses.
See it on a real address.
Thirty minutes, your property or area, every figure sourced.