# Spareroom uk us Room Flatshare Rental Listings Scraper (`jungle_synthesizer/spareroom-uk-us-room-flatshare-rental-listings-scraper`) Actor Room-share is a rental segment our fleet does not touch and cannot reach through the whole-property portals we - **URL**: https://apify.com/jungle\_synthesizer/spareroom-uk-us-room-flatshare-rental-listings-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [BowTiedRaccoon](https://apify.com/jungle_synthesizer) (community) - **Categories:** Real estate, Business - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $0.80 / 1,000 record scrapeds This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md. ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run. For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below. Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`). # README ## SpareRoom UK & US Room / Flatshare Rental Listings Scraper Extract room and flatshare listings from **SpareRoom** — the UK's largest room-share marketplace (`spareroom.co.uk`) and its US counterpart (`spareroom.com`). A run returns both rooms-to-rent ("offered") and room-seeker ("wanted") ads across every UK town and US state/metro SpareRoom lists, with the household-composition detail — housemates, age range, gender mix, couples/smoking/pets policy, minimum term, live-in-landlord vs agent — that a rent price alone doesn't tell you. ### What does the SpareRoom Scraper do? - Crawls both national sites in one run: UK (`spareroom.co.uk`) and US (`spareroom.com`) — the two are separate hosts with the same listing format. - Covers both ad types: **offered** (a room or property available now) and **wanted** (a room-seeker describing what they're looking for). - Reaches every UK town/city and every US state/metro SpareRoom's own site index lists, following the site's own borough/district breakdown for oversized cities (London, Los Angeles, ...) so a single high-volume city doesn't cap the run early. - Returns the household-composition fields most listing scrapers skip: current housemate count, age range, gender mix, occupation preference, couples/smoking/pets policy, minimum and maximum tenancy term, and whether the advertiser is a live-in landlord, an agent, or a current tenant. - Normalises rent into a single per-calendar-month figure (`rent_pcm_normalised`) alongside the as-listed amount and period, so a `£200 pw` room and a `£900 pcm` room are directly comparable without a cleanup pass. ### What data does it extract? | Field | Description | |-----------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | `listing_id` | SpareRoom's own numeric ad reference | | `listing_url` | Direct link to the listing | | `country` | `UK` or `US` | | `title` | Ad headline | | `ad_type` | `offered` (room available) or `wanted` (room-seeker) | | `property_type` | Flat share, house share, studio, whole property, etc. | | `room_type` | Single, double, twin, en-suite, etc. | | `rent_amount` | As-listed rent | | `rent_currency` | `GBP` or `USD` | | `rent_period` | `pw` (per week) or `pcm` (per calendar month) as listed | | `rent_pcm_normalised` | Rent converted to a single per-calendar-month figure | | `bills_included` | Whether bills are included in the rent | | `deposit_amount` | Deposit, when listed | | `available_from` | Move-in date or availability text | | `minimum_term_months` / `maximum_term_months` | Tenancy term bounds, when listed | | `area` | Neighbourhood/borough (UK) or the areas a wanted-ad seeker is looking in | | `postcode_district` | UK outcode or US ZIP, when listed | | `city` | The top-level town/city/metro the listing was found under | | `latitude` / `longitude` | Listing coordinates, when the page exposes them | | `nearest_station` / `station_distance` | Nearest transit station and walk time (offered ads) | | `rooms_available` | Number of room slots on the ad | | `housemates_total` | Current number of people in the household, when listed | | `housemate_genders` | Gender mix of the current household, when listed | | `age_range` | Age range of the current household, when listed | | `occupation_preference` | Preference for the incoming flatmate (professional/student/any) | | `couples_ok` / `smoking_ok` / `pets_ok` | Household policy flags, when listed | | `furnishing` | Furnished / unfurnished | | `amenities` | Comma-separated amenities (parking, garden, wifi, ...) | | `advertiser_name` | Advertiser's display name | | `advertiser_type` | Live-in landlord, landlord, agent, or current tenant | | `is_agent_listing` | `true` when the advertiser is a letting agent | | `photo_urls` | Comma-separated listing photo URLs | | `photos_count` | Number of photos on the ad | | `description` | Full ad description text | | `first_listed_at` | Approximate first-listed date, derived from the site's own "days on site" counter | | `scraped_at` | When this record was collected | Two fields aren't emitted: SpareRoom exposes no direct link to an advertiser's public profile (contact happens through the ad itself), and the site never renders a last-modified date for a listing — only the advertiser's own last-active time, which describes them, not the ad. ### How to use it The default run covers the full corpus: both countries, both ad types, every town/city and state/metro SpareRoom's own site lists. Set `maxItems` to control how many listings you retrieve. | Field | Type | Default | Description | |------------|---------|---------|-------------------------------------------------| | `maxItems` | integer | `10` | Maximum listings to return across the whole run | ### Use cases - **Co-living and build-to-rent underwriting** — model shared-accommodation demand and pricing using household composition, minimum term, and normalised rent across UK towns and US metros. - **Rent index / market research** — track per-room pricing (not whole-property) by city and neighbourhood, the segment portal-wide listing scrapers don't reach. - **Relocation and corporate housing desks** — price shared accommodation for relocating employees against `rent_pcm_normalised`, `area`, and household policy fields (couples, smoking, pets). - **Academic and demand research** — study the room-share segment's household composition trends across two national markets in one dataset. ### FAQ **Does this cover both rooms-to-rent and people looking for a room?** Yes. `ad_type` is `offered` for rooms/properties available and `wanted` for room-seeker ads. Wanted ads carry rent budget, availability, and the areas the seeker is looking in; property-specific fields (property type, postcode, station distance) only apply to offered ads and are left empty on wanted ads, since SpareRoom's own wanted-ad pages don't describe a property. **Why is `rent_pcm_normalised` sometimes different from `rent_amount`?** `rent_amount`/`rent_period` are the figures exactly as SpareRoom lists them — some ads are priced per week (`pw`), most per calendar month (`pcm`). `rent_pcm_normalised` converts a per-week rent to its calendar-month equivalent so ads on different pricing bases are directly comparable; a `pcm` ad's normalised figure equals its listed rent. **Why are some household-composition fields empty on a listing?** SpareRoom only publishes current-household detail (housemate count, age range, gender mix) on ads for a room within an existing household. Whole-property and new-build listings don't have an existing household to describe, so those fields are empty on those ads — this is genuine to the source, not a gap in the scrape. **Is it legal to scrape SpareRoom?** SpareRoom listing data is publicly accessible without login. This actor retrieves the same information a browser user would see. Users are responsible for ensuring their downstream use of the data complies with SpareRoom's terms of service and applicable laws. Results are available for export in JSON, CSV, and Excel formats from the Apify dataset tab. # Actor input Schema ## `sp_intended_usage` (type: `string`): What will this data feed? E.g. lead lists, KYB checks, price tracking. ## `sp_improvement_suggestions` (type: `string`): Provide any feedback or suggestions for improvements. ## `sp_contact` (type: `string`): We'll personally help with your use case. No spam. ## `resumeCursor` (type: `string`): Leave empty for a fresh crawl. To CONTINUE a previous run where it stopped — without paying again for records you already received — paste the `resumeCursor` value from that run's Output (the run's OUTPUT key). Resume promptly: the previous run's data expires with your account's retention window (free tier: your ~10 most recent runs). ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of records to scrape ## Actor input object example ```json { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 10 } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `results` (type: `string`): No description # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 10 }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/spareroom-uk-us-room-flatshare-rental-listings-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 10, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("jungle_synthesizer/spareroom-uk-us-room-flatshare-rental-listings-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}") for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "sp_intended_usage": "Describe your intended use...", "sp_improvement_suggestions": "Share your suggestions here...", "sp_contact": "Share your email here...", "maxItems": 10 }' | apify call jungle_synthesizer/spareroom-uk-us-room-flatshare-rental-listings-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "type": "http", "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,jungle_synthesizer/spareroom-uk-us-room-flatshare-rental-listings-scraper" } } } ``` The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer ` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations). ## OpenAPI specification Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/1sg2mEefhLI7V0iCg/builds/ZhibeYlO9fKNl3uCo/openapi.json