Gumtree Business Contact Scraper

Search. Extract. Contact. Scale.

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Features

• Multi-country support with automatic adaptation to each country's website structure
• Contact extraction including phone numbers and email addresses
• Smart selectors using JSON-LD schema, data-q attributes, and CSS fallbacks
• Built-in Apify residential proxy configuration
• Comprehensive data extraction: title, price, location, category, images, attributes
• Robust error handling with multiple fallback strategies
• Consistent output schema across all countries

Supported Countries

Country	Domain	Country Code
United Kingdom	gumtree.com	uk
Ireland	gumtree.ie	ie
South Africa	gumtree.co.za	za
Australia	gumtree.com.au	au

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
country	string	uk	Target country. Options: uk, ie, za, au
searchQuery	string	playwright	Search term to query (e.g., "laptop", "car", "jobs")
maxItems	integer	5	Maximum number of listings to scrape. Range: 1-200
maxConcurrency	integer	5	Maximum concurrent browser pages. Range: 1-10
proxyGroup	string	RESIDENTIAL	Apify proxy group (e.g., RESIDENTIAL, DATACENTER)

Required Parameters

• country - Must be one of: uk, ie, za, au
• searchQuery - Non-empty search term

Output Format

Each scraped listing contains the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
01_url	string	Full URL of the listing page
02_ad_id	string	Unique advertisement ID
03_country	string	Country code (UK, IE, ZA, AU)
04_title	string	Listing title/headline
05_price	string	Price or salary information
06_category	string	Category breadcrumb path
07_location	string	Geographic location (city, region)
08_date_posted	string	Date when listing was posted
09_seller_name	string	Seller or company name
10_attributes	object	Additional attributes (year, make, model, etc.)
11_image_urls	array	Array of image URLs
12_description	string	Full text description
13_phone_number	string	Contact phone number (if available)
14_email	string	Contact email address (if found in description)

Sample Output

{
  "01_url": "https://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/laptop-dell-xps-15/1234567890",
  "02_ad_id": "1234567890",
  "03_country": "UK",
  "04_title": "Laptop Dell XPS 15 - Excellent Condition",
  "05_price": "£850",
  "06_category": "For Sale > Computers & Software > Laptops",
  "07_location": "London, Greater London",
  "08_date_posted": "Posted 2 days ago",
  "09_seller_name": "TechStore Ltd",
  "10_attributes": {
    "Condition": "Used",
    "Brand": "Dell"
  },
  "11_image_urls": [
    "https://imagedelivery.net/example1.jpg",
    "https://imagedelivery.net/example2.jpg"
  ],
  "12_description": "Dell XPS 15 laptop in excellent condition...",
  "13_phone_number": "+44 7700 900123",
  "14_email": "contact@techstore.example.com"
}

Usage Examples

Basic Search (UK)

{
  "country": "uk",
  "searchQuery": "laptop",
  "maxItems": 10
}

Australian Job Search

{
  "country": "au",
  "searchQuery": "software developer",
  "maxItems": 50,
  "maxConcurrency": 3
}

South African Property Listings

{
  "country": "za",
  "searchQuery": "apartment cape town",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "proxyGroup": "RESIDENTIAL"
}

Irish Vehicle Search

{
  "country": "ie",
  "searchQuery": "toyota corolla",
  "maxItems": 25,
  "maxConcurrency": 5
}

API Integration

You can call this actor programmatically using the Apify API.

Start Actor Run

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/MT1dx8kcq3BvIVehT/runs?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "country": "uk",
    "searchQuery": "laptop",
    "maxItems": 10
  }'

Get Dataset Items

$curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/DATASET_ID/items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN&format=json"

Using Apify Client (JavaScript)

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('MT1dx8kcq3BvIVehT').call({
    country: 'uk',
    searchQuery: 'laptop',
    maxItems: 10
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Using Apify Client (Python)

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('YOUR_API_TOKEN')

run_input = {
    'country': 'uk',
    'searchQuery': 'laptop',
    'maxItems': 10
}

run = client.actor('MT1dx8kcq3BvIVehT').call(run_input=run_input)

for item in client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Troubleshooting

Common issues and how to resolve them:

Issue	Possible Cause	Solution
0 items extracted	Search query yielded no results	Try a broader search term (e.g., "car" instead of "red tesla model 3").
Proxy Errors	Rate limiting or blocked IP	Ensure you are using RESIDENTIAL proxies (default). Datacenter proxies are often blocked.
Missing Phones	Listing has no phone number	Not all sellers provide phone numbers. This is normal behavior.
Slow Extraction	High concurrency or slow proxy	Reduce maxConcurrency to 3 or 5.
"Access Denied"	Cloudflare protection	The actor handles this automatically, but persistent errors may need a retry.

Limitations and Notes

Rate Limiting

• Gumtree implements rate limiting based on IP addresses
• The actor uses residential proxies by default to mitigate this
• Adjust maxConcurrency to lower values if experiencing blocks

Anti-Scraping Measures

• Cloudflare protection is handled by Playwright browser automation
• reCAPTCHA may trigger on suspicious patterns; proxies help mitigate this
• Phone numbers require click interaction to reveal (implemented automatically)

Data Availability

• Phone numbers are only available when sellers choose to display them
• Email addresses are extracted from listing descriptions when present
• Some fields may be null if not provided by the seller

Proxy Configuration

• RESIDENTIAL proxies are recommended for best results
• The actor automatically selects country-appropriate proxy locations
• Falls back to RESIDENTIAL group if specified proxy group fails

Performance Recommendations

• Start with lower maxItems values to test your search query
• Use maxConcurrency of 3-5 for balanced speed and reliability
• For large scrapes (100+ items), consider running during off-peak hours

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