# Publish a property from a link, material facts only

> A rights-holder — an estate agent, an auction house or the seller — pastes a link to a listing they may publish, and the platform imports the facts: address, tenure, price, the structured data a page already exposes. It never takes the photographs or the written copy, which are someone else's copyright, and it refuses the big portals before fetching anything, because importing is lawful only when the person importing holds the rights.

- Source: https://www.lodeprop.com/blog/publish-a-property-from-a-listing-link
- Topic: Selling a property
- Published: 2026-10-20
- Updated: 2026-10-20
- Figures: computed from a worked example

Getting a property onto a new platform usually means re-typing everything, which is why most of it never happens. One-click import removes the typing without crossing the line that re-typing stays the right side of: it reads the facts a listing page already publishes about itself, and it leaves everything that belongs to somebody else exactly where it is.

## Who can import, and what is actually taken?

Only a rights-holder: an agent instructed on the property, an auction house running the lot, or the seller themselves. What is taken is the factual skeleton — address, tenure, price, property type, the structured data the page exposes for exactly this purpose. What is never taken is the photography and the marketing copy, because those are the listing author's copyright and importing them would be reproduction, not reference.

### What imports, and what does not

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Address and location | Imported — a fact about the property |
| Tenure, type, price | Imported — structured facts a page publishes |
| Photographs | Not imported — the author's copyright |
| Marketing description | Not imported — the author's copyright |
| A portal listing | Refused before fetch — the importer is not the rights-holder |

## Why are the portals refused before anything is fetched?

Because the person pasting a portal link is almost never the rights-holder for that page, and the fetch itself is the exposure — the problem is created by taking the data, not by displaying it later. So a URL that resolves to a major portal is refused at classification, before a single request goes out. The same classifier guards against the request being pointed somewhere it should not go: it will not fetch an internal address or a non-public host, because an import tool that can be aimed at a private network is a server-side request forgery waiting to happen.

## What happens to the facts once they are in?

They become a draft, and a draft is not a live listing. The imported facts seed the material information record, where every one of them is held in its proper state — stated, not applicable, or not known. Nothing an import could not establish is filled in by guesswork; a fact the source page did not carry arrives as not known, with the source recorded, rather than as a confident blank. From the draft, the listing goes through the same appraisal and the same seller checks as anything typed in by hand.

That is the honest limit on "one click to live." The facts can be imported in one action; the property still has to be appraised and the seller still has to be checked, because a listing that skipped those would be live, wrong, and nobody's fault in particular. Price Paid Data and the EPC register can enrich a draft with public signal, but neither of those is a substitute for the human steps that turn a draft into a deal.

## What it changes

- A rights-holder gets a property onto the platform in one action instead of a form.
- Copyright material stays with its author — facts are referenced, photographs and copy are not reproduced.
- Portal links and non-public hosts are refused at classification, before any request is made.
- The result is a draft that still passes appraisal and seller due diligence, not a listing that skipped them.

Import is fast because it reads what a page already says about itself, and lawful because it reads only that. The convenience is real; the discipline that makes it safe is the part worth selling.

## Common questions

### Can I import any listing I find online?

No. Import is for a rights-holder — the instructed agent, the auction house or the seller. Portal links are refused at classification because the person pasting them is almost never entitled to publish that page, and the fetch itself is the exposure.

### Does it copy the photos and the description?

No. It takes the facts a page publishes about itself — address, tenure, price, property type — and never the photography or the marketing copy, which are the listing author's copyright. Facts are referenced; creative work is not reproduced.

### Is an imported property immediately live?

No. Import produces a draft that seeds the material information record. The property still goes through appraisal and seller due diligence before it is live, because a listing that skipped those would be published wrong.

## Terms used

- [Price Paid Data](https://www.lodeprop.com/glossary/price-paid-data) — Every registered property sale in England and Wales since 1995, published free under the Open Government Licence.
- [EPC register](https://www.lodeprop.com/glossary/epc-register) — The public register of energy performance certificates, which also publishes floor area and lodgement dates.
- [material information](https://www.lodeprop.com/glossary/material-information) — The facts that must be published about a property before it is marketed, in three parts, with unanswered treated as an answer.

## Sources

- [Material information in property listings, Parts A, B and C](https://www.nationaltradingstandards.uk) — National Trading Standards Estate and Letting Agency Team (publisher's site; search the title there). What must be stated on every listing, and what must be stated where it applies, before a property is marketed.
- [Land Registration Act 2002](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/9) — legislation.gov.uk. The register, what it proves, and who is recorded as proprietor.
- [Price Paid Data](https://landregistry.data.gov.uk) — HM Land Registry (publisher's site; search the title there). Every registered residential sale in England and Wales since 1995.
- [Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Part 4](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/13) — legislation.gov.uk. The current consumer protection regime: misleading actions and misleading omissions, which replaced the 2008 Regulations for most purposes in April 2025.

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_Import behaviour reflects the Lode listing-import engine; facts are mapped, copyright material is not taken._