Rightmove API Alternative: How Developers Get UK Listings Data
Rightmove is the UK's largest property portal but offers no public search API. Thousands of developers search for a Rightmove API every month — this guide explains the compliant licensed-feed alternative and what data you can realistically access for UK property listings.
Why Rightmove has no API
Rightmove's business model is built on agent subscriptions — estate agents pay monthly fees to advertise on the platform. Their terms of service explicitly prohibit automated data collection, and they invest heavily in bot detection to protect their commercial position. The only legitimate data flow is one-way: agents upload listings to Rightmove via the RTDF agent feed; developers cannot query listings from Rightmove.
UK property portals haven't moved toward open APIs the way US portals (Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com) have. From a developer's perspective they're walled gardens — and scraping them carries real legal exposure under the UK Computer Misuse Act and database-rights legislation.
The licensed-feed alternative
A property-data API like Homedata gives developers the data Rightmove refuses to expose, through a compliant licensed feed:
- 90%+ of the UK property market covered — active for-sale and to-let listings, every UPRN linked.
- Real UPRNs and full normalised addresses — joinable to Land Registry, EPC, planning, council tax, and risk data.
- 30 years of listing-event history — Added, Reduced, Sold STC, Withdrawn, Re-listed events for every property.
- HM Land Registry sold prices, EPC ratings, environmental risk, council tax — in a single response.
- No IP bans, no proxy budget, no CAPTCHAs, no legal exposure.
What you can build with it
Property valuations (AVM)
Estimate market value for any UPRN from comparable sold prices and floor area — no need to ask a portal for prices.
View valuation API →Market activity by area
Listing volumes, average days to sale, price reductions, and sold/asking ratios by postcode sector or local authority — covering 90%+ of the UK property market via a single licensed feed.
View market activity API →Live listings + UPRN
Active for-sale and to-let listings with verified UPRNs, normalised addresses, and full listing-event history.
View listings data →Deal sourcing signals
Filter to long days-on-market, multiple price reductions, and withdrawn-and-relisted listings — the motivated-vendor signal that portals never expose.
For property sourcers →FAQ
Does Rightmove have a public API?
No. Rightmove offers no public search API. Their RTDF is an agent-only upload interface. Scraping is prohibited by their Terms of Service.
What can I get from Homedata instead of Rightmove?
Live listings, sold price history, EPC, environmental risk, council tax, and full property characteristics — all UPRN-matched and accessible via a single REST API. No scraping required.
Is scraping Rightmove legal?
No. The UK Computer Misuse Act and database-rights regime make unauthorised extraction a civil and potentially criminal exposure, and Rightmove's ToS explicitly forbids it. Use a licensed feed.
How does pricing compare to scraping infrastructure?
A residential-proxy budget plus headless-browser infrastructure typically costs £200–£2,000/month before you've built or maintained anything. The Homedata free tier covers 100 calls/month at zero cost; paid plans start at £49/month for 2,000 calls — and the data is genuinely matchable instead of marketing strings.
Get a free Homedata API key → · Try the API in your browser · Read the docs