Dubai Property Listings Scraper (PropertyFinder UAE)

A production-grade, fast, and lightweight Apify Actor designed to scrape real-estate listings across Dubai and all UAE Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain) from PropertyFinder.ae.

It extracts complete property records for both sale and rent, with industry-leading data depth: built-up area in both sqft and sqm, price per area, agent & broker details, verified status, RERA permit numbers, high-resolution photo galleries, full descriptions, amenities, and community price trends (12-month % change, community average price, active inventory).

---

Key Features

• Pure HTTP / Server-Side Rendering (No Heavy Browser): Powered by got-scraping and Cheerio, consuming minimal RAM and compute credits while delivering ultra-fast scrape speeds.
• Deep Market Metrics: Beyond basic titles and prices, extracts 12-month community price trends (communityPriceTrend12mPct), community average pricing, and total active listings in the community.
• Dual Area Metrics: Automatically calculates both built-up area in square feet (sizeSqft) and square metres (sizeSqm).
• Comprehensive Agent & Broker Profiles: Captures listing agent names, profile slugs, agency/brokerage names, emails, phone numbers, and license/permit codes.
• Full RERA Compliance Tracking: Extracts official regulatory permits, DLD validation references, and RERA broker/agent licenses.
• Robots.txt & Anti-Block Polite Architecture: Strictly adheres to robots.txt allowances by requesting path-based listing directories (never using disallowed /en/search paths), with automatic exponential backoff on rate limits.

---

Use Cases

1. Real Estate Investment Analysis & Valuation: Track historical and current asking prices across Dubai communities (e.g. Palm Jumeirah, Downtown Dubai, Arabian Ranches, Dubai Marina) to identify undervalued properties and calculate price-per-square-metre yields.
2. Brokerage & Agency Competitive Intelligence: Monitor new listings, commission opportunities, price drops, and competitor inventory in real time across residential and commercial sectors.
3. Lead Generation for PropTech & Home Services: Power B2B lead generation for interior designers, home renovation contractors, mortgage brokers, and moving companies targeting newly listed properties.
4. Macro Real Estate Research & Market Indexes: Build aggregate price indices, monitor community-level inflation/deflation trends, and analyze inventory velocity over time.

---

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
mode	String (select)	"BUY"	Listing type: "BUY" for properties for sale, "RENT" for properties for rent.
location	String (select)	"dubai"	Target emirate/market: dubai, abu-dhabi, sharjah, ajman, ras-al-khaimah, fujairah, umm-al-quwain.
propertyType	String (select)	"ANY"	Property type: ANY, APARTMENT, VILLA, TOWNHOUSE, PENTHOUSE, HOTEL_APARTMENT, VILLA_COMPOUND, LAND, BUILDING, OFFICE, SHOP, WAREHOUSE, LABOUR_CAMP.
minPrice	Integer	optional	Minimum asking price in AED (client-side filter).
maxPrice	Integer	optional	Maximum asking price in AED (client-side filter).
minBedrooms	Integer	optional	Minimum number of bedrooms.
maxBedrooms	Integer	optional	Maximum number of bedrooms.
furnishing	String (select)	"ANY"	Furnishing status: "ANY", "FURNISHED", "UNFURNISHED".
includeDetails	Boolean	true	Fetch each listing detail page to enrich with full description, amenities, high-res images, and community price trends.
maxPages	Integer	3	Maximum search result pages to crawl (each page holds 25–35 listings).
maxItems	Integer	200	Hard cap on saved listing records.
startUrls	Array of Strings	[]	Optional direct PropertyFinder path URLs (e.g. https://www.propertyfinder.ae/en/buy/dubai/villas-for-sale.html).
proxyConfiguration	Object	optional	Optional proxy settings. Datacenter or residential proxies can be attached if running heavy volume.

---

Output Dataset Schema

Each dataset item contains clean, typed fields conforming exactly to the actor schema:

Field	Type	Description
_type	String	Fixed to "property".
source	String	Fixed to "propertyfinder".
listingId	String	Unique PropertyFinder listing ID.
url	String	Canonical URL to the listing on PropertyFinder.
name	String	Listing title / headline.
adDescription	String	Full markdown/text listing description.
transactionType	String	"sale" or "rent".
propertyType	String	Property category (e.g. "Villa", "Apartment").
price	Number	Asking price in AED.
currency	String	Currency code ("AED").
pricePeriod	String	Price frequency ("sell", "yearly", "monthly").
pricePerArea	Number	Asking price per square foot.
sizeSqft	Number	Built-up area in square feet.
sizeSqm	Number	Built-up area in square metres (calculated to 2 decimal places).
bedrooms	Number	Bedroom count.
bathrooms	Number	Bathroom count.
locationFullName	String	Full location breadcrumb path.
community	String	Master community (e.g. "Arabian Ranches").
subCommunity	String	Sub-community or tower name.
city	String	Emirate / city name.
latitude	Number	Geographic latitude coordinate.
longitude	Number	Geographic longitude coordinate.
agentName	String	Assigned agent name.
agentSlug	String	Agent profile slug.
brokerName	String	Brokerage / agency name.
brokerEmail	String	Brokerage contact email.
brokerPhone	String	Brokerage contact phone number.
brokerSlug	String	Brokerage profile slug.
reference	String	Broker internal listing reference.
rera	String	Official RERA permit / validation number.
listedDate	String	Listing publication timestamp (ISO).
lastRefreshedAt	String	Last refresh timestamp (ISO) or null.
isVerified	Boolean	True if the listing is verified.
isExclusive	Boolean	True if exclusive listing.
isNewConstruction	Boolean	True if new development.
isAvailable	Boolean	Availability flag.
furnished	String	"YES", "NO", "PARTLY", etc.
completionStatus	String	"completed", "off-plan", etc.
amenities	Array[String]	Array of amenity names (e.g. ["Private Pool", "Balcony", "Security"]).
imageCount	Number	Total count of property images.
images	Array[String]	List of high-resolution image URLs.
communityAvgPrice	Number	Average community listing price.
communityActiveListings	Number	Total active listings in the community.
communityPriceTrend12mPct	Number	12-month community price trend (% change).
scrapedAt	String	Timestamp when the record was scraped (ISO).

---

Sample Output Record

{
  "_type": "property",
  "source": "propertyfinder",
  "listingId": "164563288",
  "url": "https://www.propertyfinder.ae/en/plp/buy/villa-for-sale-dubai-the-springs-springs-15-164563288.html",
  "name": "Turn Key | Private Pool | Maids Room | Extended",
  "adDescription": "Turn Key | Private Pool | Maids Room | Extended\n\n- Springs 15\n- Type 3E\n- Fully renovated | Move-in ready\n- 3 Bedroom Plus Maids\n- Extended from kitchen and study side\n- Private heated and chilled pool...",
  "transactionType": "sale",
  "propertyType": "Villa",
  "price": 7350000,
  "currency": "AED",
  "pricePeriod": "sell",
  "pricePerArea": 1662,
  "sizeSqft": 4420,
  "sizeSqm": 410.63,
  "bedrooms": 3,
  "bathrooms": 4,
  "locationFullName": "Springs 15, The Springs, Dubai",
  "community": "The Springs",
  "subCommunity": "Springs 15",
  "city": "Dubai",
  "latitude": 25.051973342895508,
  "longitude": 55.178489685058594,
  "agentName": "Jack Evans",
  "agentSlug": "jack-evans",
  "brokerName": "Barnes International Realty",
  "brokerEmail": "danial@arabianestates.ae",
  "brokerPhone": "+971585566633",
  "brokerSlug": "barnes-international-realty-v2-4338",
  "reference": "PB-S-35978-7",
  "rera": "939996",
  "listedDate": "2026-10-26T06:12:08Z",
  "lastRefreshedAt": null,
  "isVerified": true,
  "isExclusive": false,
  "isNewConstruction": false,
  "isAvailable": true,
  "furnished": "NO",
  "completionStatus": "completed",
  "amenities": [
    "Maids Room",
    "Balcony",
    "Shared Pool",
    "Shared Gym",
    "Covered Parking",
    "View of Landmark",
    "Private Pool",
    "Built in Wardrobes",
    "Children's Play Area",
    "Children's Pool",
    "Barbecue Area",
    "Security"
  ],
  "imageCount": 19,
  "images": [
    "https://static.shared.propertyfinder.ae/media/images/listing/4MZB0TCCN0AKR2B74J4MX0P388/d3c6fb0c-d9ba-4bc2-a149-70ac283fcecb/1312x894.jpg?v=36c1a9ca00dc2306cbb5a75940cd3e19"
  ],
  "communityAvgPrice": 5958035,
  "communityActiveListings": 389,
  "communityPriceTrend12mPct": -4.04,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-11-03T18:02:52.488Z"
}

---

Cost & Compute Efficiency

Because this Actor operates purely over standard HTTP requests without running headless Chromium or browser automation frameworks, resource utilization is extremely light:

• Memory footprint: Runs comfortably within 256MB–512MB RAM.
• Speed: ~15–25 enriched listings per second under moderate concurrency.
• Cost: A typical run of 1,000 enriched listings consumes less than $0.05 in Apify compute units.

---

Legal & Compliance Notice

This Actor extracts exclusively publicly available data published on PropertyFinder.ae. It accesses only paths permitted by PropertyFinder's robots.txt policy and strictly avoids disallowed search query paths. Users are responsible for complying with local regulations and the website's terms of service.