SpareRoom Scraper

Scrape SpareRoom — the UK's largest flatshare and room-rental marketplace. Search rooms in any city or area with a budget range and search radius, or fetch specific listings by URL, and get the advertised rent and its period, neighbourhood and postcode, property type, number of rooms in the property, advertiser type, listing age, availability, bills-included status, verification status, and listing photos. HTTP-only against spareroom.co.uk. No auth, no proxy.

What this actor does

• Four modes: searchRooms, searchByCity, searchByBudget, and roomDetails for specific listing URLs
• Budget and radius control: min and max monthly rent plus a 0–50 mile radius from the city centre
• Paginated sweep: walks search result pages until maxItems is reached or listings run out
• Landlord signals: advertiser role, profile photo, listing age, and SpareRoom's verified badge
• Empty fields are omitted

Output per room listing

• roomId — SpareRoom listing ID
• title — advertised headline
• price — advertised rent as a number
• priceType — the period the price is quoted in, e.g. per month or per week
• city — the city or area searched
• area — neighbourhood
• postcode — postcode or partial postcode
• propertyType — e.g. flat, house
• roomsInProperty — total rooms in the property
• landlordType — advertiser role, e.g. live-in landlord, agent, current tenant
• landlordPhotoUrl — advertiser profile photo
• listingType — advert type as classified by SpareRoom
• billsIncluded — true when bills are advertised as included
• availableNow — true when the room is available immediately
• availableFrom — availability text as advertised
• daysOld — how long the advert has been live
• isVerified — SpareRoom's advertiser verification flag
• description — listing description (mode=roomDetails)
• furnishing — furnished / unfurnished (mode=roomDetails)
• imageUrl — main listing photo
• roomUrl — the listing page on SpareRoom
• scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	searchRooms	searchRooms / searchByCity / searchByBudget / roomDetails
city	string	London	City or area to search, e.g. Manchester, Edinburgh
maxBudget	int	1500	Maximum monthly rent in GBP (100–10000)
minBudget	int	–	Minimum monthly rent in GBP
milesFromCenter	int	3	Search radius from the city centre (0–50)
roomType	string	any	any / double / single / ensuite / studio — see FAQ
roomUrls	array	–	SpareRoom listing URLs to fetch (mode=roomDetails)
maxItems	int	20	Hard cap (1–500)

Example: rooms in London under £1,200

{
  "mode": "searchRooms",
  "city": "London",
  "maxBudget": 1200,
  "milesFromCenter": 5,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: a budget band in another city

{
  "mode": "searchByBudget",
  "city": "Manchester",
  "minBudget": 500,
  "maxBudget": 800,
  "maxItems": 200
}

Example: a wide radius around a smaller city

{
  "mode": "searchByCity",
  "city": "Edinburgh",
  "maxBudget": 900,
  "milesFromCenter": 15
}

Example: detail for specific listings

{
  "mode": "roomDetails",
  "roomUrls": [
    "https://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/flatshare_detail.pl?flatshare_id=15891234"
  ]
}

Use cases

• Rental market research — track asking rents by city, neighbourhood, and property type over time
• Relocation tools — surface affordable rooms within a commute radius of a workplace
• Property investment — benchmark room rents in a target postcode before buying to let
• Letting agents — monitor competing adverts and how quickly they turn over
• Data journalism — quantify the UK flatshare market and how bills-included pricing varies
• Comparison sites — feed live room listings into an aggregator

FAQ

What is SpareRoom? The UK's largest flatshare site, listing rooms in shared houses and flats plus studios. See spareroom.co.uk.

Is this affiliated with SpareRoom? No. This is a third-party actor reading their public search pages.

Do I need a SpareRoom account? No. Only publicly visible listing data is collected. Contact details behind SpareRoom's login are not returned.

Is price per month or per week? Check priceType — SpareRoom advertisers quote both, and the actor reports the price exactly as advertised rather than converting it. Budget filters are applied by SpareRoom's own search on a monthly basis.

Does roomType filter results? Not currently — the field is present in the input but search results are not narrowed by it. Filter on title and propertyType in the output instead.

Why do some listings have no postcode? Advertisers often publish only a neighbourhood or partial postcode to protect privacy. Missing values are dropped rather than guessed.

What does landlordType tell me? Whether the advert comes from a live-in landlord, a current tenant looking for a flatmate, or a letting agent — a useful proxy for how the tenancy will be handled.

What is daysOld? How long the advert has been live. Low values mean fresh stock; high values often mean a listing that isn't renting, which can signal room for negotiation.

Can I search outside the UK? No. SpareRoom's UK site is the source, so coverage is England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

How fresh is the data? Live at run time. SpareRoom listings change constantly, so re-running gives current availability and prices.