Trademe Properties Spider

Introduction

The Trademe Properties Spider is a powerful Apify Actor designed to scrape residential property listings from TradeMe, New Zealand's leading online marketplace. It efficiently extracts detailed property data, including prices, locations, agent information, and high-resolution images, enabling users to gather comprehensive real estate insights. This tool is ideal for market analysis, investment research, and automated data collection, providing reliable and structured data in JSON format.

Features

• Comprehensive Data Extraction: Captures key property details such as listing ID, title, price, location, bedrooms, bathrooms, and agent contacts.
• High-Resolution Images: Retrieves multiple photo URLs for each listing, ensuring visual data is readily available.
• Flexible Configuration: Allows customization of the starting URL and item limits to target specific searches or regions.
• Reliable Performance: Built on Apify's robust infrastructure for scalable and error-resistant scraping.
• JSON Output: Delivers clean, structured data suitable for integration with databases, analytics tools, or APIs.
• Rate Limiting Awareness: Respects TradeMe's API guidelines to avoid overloading servers and ensure ethical scraping.
• Easy Integration: Outputs data in a format compatible with downstream processing for reports, dashboards, or machine learning models.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description	Example
Url	string	No	The API URL for the TradeMe residential property search endpoint. Customize to filter by region, price, or other criteria.	"https://api.trademe.co.nz/v1/search/property/residential.json?page=1&rows=22&return_canonical=true&return_metadata=true&return_ads=true&return_empty_categories=true&return_super_features=true&return_did_you_mean=true&canonical_path=%2Fproperty%2Fresidential%2Fsale&rsqid=3e140f5dac734fe8948a26815db8bad6-001"
itemLimit	integer	No	Specifies the maximum number of property listings to process and extract.	10

Example Usage

Input Configuration

{
  "Url": "https://api.trademe.co.nz/v1/search/property/residential.json?page=1&rows=22&return_canonical=true&return_metadata=true&return_ads=true&return_empty_categories=true&return_super_features=true&return_did_you_mean=true&canonical_path=%2Fproperty%2Fresidential%2Fsale&rsqid=3e140f5dac734fe8948a26815db8bad6-001",
  "itemLimit": 10
}

Output Example

[
  {
    "listing_id": 5740810364,
    "title": "Family Ready - Ross Street Renovation",
    "category": "0350-5748-3399-",
    "start_price": 0,
    "start_date": "/Date(1768889420553)/",
    "end_date": "/Date(1773727820553)/",
    "is_featured": true,
    "has_gallery": true,
    "is_bold": true,
    "is_highlighted": true,
    "category_path": "/Trade-Me-Property/Residential/For-Sale",
    "picture_href": "https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/thumb/2281317303.jpg",
    "region": "Wellington",
    "suburb": "Kilbirnie",
    "price_display": "Deadline sale by 5 Feb",
    "photo_urls": [
      "https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/thumb/2281317304.jpg",
      "https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/thumb/2281317305.jpg"
    ],
    "address": "21 Ross Street",
    "district": "Wellington",
    "area": 169,
    "land_area": 381,
    "bathrooms": 2,
    "bedrooms": 4,
    "parking": "",
    "property_type": "House",
    "agency_name": "New Zealand Sotheby's International Realty Wellington",
    "agency_phone": null,
    "agency_website": "https://www.nzsothebysrealty.com/",
    "agent_name": "Steve Rodwell",
    "agent_mobile": "(021) 907948",
    "agent_photo": "https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/property/agent_profile/160x160/agent_individual_profile4632223v12.jpg",
    "actor_id": "UlgSWhmHfGboZLrXl",
    "run_id": "y6Lxxh3joyf2rtEea"
  }
]

Use Cases

• Market Research: Analyze property trends, average prices, and availability in specific regions for investment decisions.
• Competitive Intelligence: Monitor competitor listings and pricing strategies for real estate agencies.
• Price Monitoring: Track property values over time to identify undervalued opportunities or market shifts.
• Content Aggregation: Build databases of property listings for websites, apps, or newsletters.
• Academic Research: Gather data for studies on housing markets, urban development, or socioeconomic factors.
• Business Automation: Automate lead generation for real estate professionals by extracting agent contacts and property details.

Installation and Usage

1. Search for "Trademe Properties Spider" in the Apify Store.
2. Click "Try for free" or "Run".
3. Configure input parameters (e.g., set the URL and item limit).
4. Click "Start" to begin extraction.
5. Monitor progress in the log.
6. Export results in your preferred format (JSON, CSV, Excel).

Output Format

The Actor outputs an array of JSON objects, each representing a property listing. Key fields include listing_id (unique identifier), title (property name), price_display (pricing info), region and suburb (location), bedrooms, bathrooms, area, land_area, photo_urls (array of image links), and agent details like agency_name, agent_name, and agent_mobile. Dates are in TradeMe's format, and boolean flags indicate features like is_featured. This structure ensures easy parsing and integration.

Error Handling

The Actor handles common errors gracefully, such as invalid URLs or API rate limits, by logging issues and retrying requests. If the item limit is exceeded or data is unavailable, it stops processing and provides partial results. Check the run logs for details on any failures.

Rate Limiting and Best Practices

TradeMe's API may impose rate limits; the Actor includes built-in delays to comply. Best practices include starting with small item limits for testing, avoiding excessive runs, and respecting TradeMe's terms of service. For large-scale scraping, consider scheduling runs during off-peak hours.

Limitations

• Limited to TradeMe's residential property API; does not cover commercial or rental listings.
• Output depends on API availability; changes in TradeMe's structure may require updates.
• Image URLs may expire; download promptly for long-term use.

Support

For custom/simplified outputs or bug reports, please contact:

• Email: support@getdataforme.com
• Subject line: "custom support"
• Contact form: https://getdataforme.com/contact/

We're here to help you get the most out of this Actor!

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