housing.com

find-listings

Installation

Adds this website's skill for your agents

 

Summary

Search Housing.com for property listings in an Indian city (rent or buy), returning each listing's title, BHK, sqft, locality, price, furnishing, posted-by, verification badges, updated time, and canonical detail URL.

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SKILL.md
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Housing.com Find Listings

Purpose

Given an Indian city (and optional intent: rent or buy, optional BHK / property-type / furnishing / owner-only filters), return a structured list of property listings from housing.com — listing ID, title, BHK count, sqft, locality, society/project, price (₹), furnishing, posted-by (Owner vs agent), verification badges, "X ago" updated time, and the canonical listing detail URL. Read-only — never clicks "Contact", "Post Property", or any form-submit action.

When to Use

  • Daily / weekly monitoring of new rental or resale listings in an Indian city.
  • Bulk extraction of listings across BHK / locality / owner-vs-agent filters.
  • Anywhere you need to compare price-per-sqft or new-listing velocity for an Indian metro on housing.com.

Workflow

Housing.com is fronted by Akamai Bot Manager. The public HTML API path is blocked at the edge (browse cloud fetch returns 406 even with residential proxies; GraphQL endpoints under mightyzeus-mum.housing.com/api/gql are also gated). A stealth + residential-proxy browser session is mandatory, AND direct navigation to deep SERP URLs is blocked even on warmed sessions — Akamai issues a "Security Alert / Request Blocked" interstitial unless you arrive at the SERP through the homepage typeahead flow.

The only reliable working pattern: homepage → click intent tab (BUY / RENT) → click search textbox → type city → wait for typeahead dropdown → click the CITY listitem → click "Search" button (or press Enter). Listings are server-rendered into the DOM as anchors with structured slugs encoding BHK / sqft / property type / locality / listing ID, so DOM-only extraction (no network capture) is sufficient.

1. Stealth + residential-proxy session

SID=$(browse cloud sessions create --keep-alive --verified --proxies \
  | node -e "let s='';process.stdin.on('data',c=>s+=c).on('end',()=>process.stdout.write(JSON.parse(s).id))")
export BROWSE_SESSION="$SID"

Both --verified (stealth Chromium fingerprint) and --proxies are required. A bare session is served the Security Alert page on any housing.com URL.

2. Warm cookies on the homepage

browse open "https://housing.com/" --remote --session "$SID"
browse wait load --remote --session "$SID"
browse wait timeout 3000 --remote --session "$SID"

The wait timeout 3000 after wait load is necessary — Akamai's bm_sz / _abck cookies and the BUY/RENT/COMMERCIAL/PG/PLOTS hero-nav refs settle ~1–2s after the load event.

3. Snapshot to discover refs (they change per page load)

browse snapshot --remote --session "$SID"

Find these four refs in the snapshot tree — they are inside the hero navigation element:

  • link: BUY, link: RENT, link: COMMERCIAL, link: PG/CO-LIVING, link: PLOTS — five intent tabs. RENT is the default state of the search hero on the homepage.
  • textbox: Search for locality, landmark, project, or builder — the city/locality input.
  • button: Search — submits to the SERP.

The ref numbers shift per page load, so always re-snapshot before the click sequence.

4. Click intent → type city → select typeahead → submit

# Click intent tab (RENT in this example — use BUY for resale, etc.)
browse click @<RENT_REF> --remote --session "$SID"
browse wait timeout 1500 --remote --session "$SID"

# Click textbox, type city name
browse click @<TEXTBOX_REF> --remote --session "$SID"
browse wait timeout 1000 --remote --session "$SID"
browse type "Bangalore" --remote --session "$SID"
browse wait timeout 2500 --remote --session "$SID"      # dropdown render is async

Re-snapshot. The dropdown is a list with listitem rows. Pick the row whose category badge is CITY (not LOCALITY, PROJECT, HOSPITAL, BUS STATION, etc.) — it's the first row that says <CityName>, <StateName>:

[listitem]
  [StaticText: Bangalore, Karnataka]
  [StaticText: CITY] [|] [StaticText: BENGALURU]

browse click @<CITY_LISTITEM_REF> --remote --session "$SID"
browse wait timeout 1200 --remote --session "$SID"

# Submit — re-snapshot first since the listitem click rebuilds the tree
browse snapshot --remote --session "$SID"
browse click @<SEARCH_BUTTON_REF> --remote --session "$SID"
# Or equivalently: browse press Enter --remote --session "$SID"

browse wait load --remote --session "$SID"
browse wait timeout 3500 --remote --session "$SID"
browse get url --remote --session "$SID"
browse get title --remote --session "$SID"

The SERP URL pattern after submit:

  • Rent: https://housing.com/rent/flats-for-rent-in-{city}-{state}-P{polygonId} (e.g. Bangalore→Karnataka = P38f9yfbk7p3m2h1f; Pune→Maharashtra = P2r4v3l939lxd541t). The P{polygonId} token is the region lock — discovered per-city by housing.com's geocoder, not stable across cities, not guessable from the city name.
  • Buy: https://housing.com/in/buy/{city}/ (no polygon token in URL, but page rendering is still gated to a warm session).

Title format: Flats for Rent in <City> | <N>+ Rental Flats in <City> for rent; Flats in <City> | <N>+ <City> Flats for Sale for buy. Extract the <N> integer as total_results.

5. Extract listings from DOM

Listings are server-rendered as anchors with detail-page URLs that encode every field in the slug. No network capture is needed. Run inside a browse eval block:

(() => {
  const url = window.location.href;
  const isRent = /\/rent\//.test(url);
  // Rent detail anchors:  /rent/{id}-{sqft}-sqft-{bhk}-(bhk|rk|r)-{type}-on-rent-in-{locality}-{city}
  // Buy  detail anchors:  /in/buy/resale/page/{id}-{bhk}-bhk-{type}-in-{locality}-for-rs-{priceRs}
  const selector = isRent
    ? 'a[href*="-sqft-"][href*="on-rent-in-"]'
    : 'a[href*="/in/buy/resale/page/"]';
  const anchors = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(selector));
  const seen = new Set();
  const items = [];
  for (const a of anchors) {
    if (seen.has(a.href)) continue;
    seen.add(a.href);
    // Walk up to the card container (the nearest ancestor whose textContent contains ₹)
    let card = a;
    for (let i = 0; i < 10 && card; i++) {
      card = card.parentElement;
      if (card && /₹\s*[\d,.]+/.test(card.textContent)) break;
    }
    const text = card ? (card.innerText || card.textContent).replace(/\s+/g, ' ').trim() : '';
    const rentM = a.href.match(/\/rent\/(\d+)-(\d+)-sqft-(\d+(?:\.\d+)?)-(bhk|rk|r)-([a-z_]+)-on-rent-in-([a-z-]+)/i);
    const buyM  = a.href.match(/\/buy\/resale\/page\/(\d+)-(\d+(?:\.\d+)?)-(bhk|rk|r)-([a-z_]+)-in-([a-z-]+)-for-rs-(\d+)/i);
    const m = rentM || buyM;
    const priceTxt = (text.match(/₹\s*[\d,]+(?:\.\d+)?\s*(?:Cr|Crore|Lac|Lakh|L|K)?/) || [])[0];
    const sqftM   = text.match(/(\d+)\s*sq\.ft/);
    const furnM   = text.match(/(Fully furnished|Semi furnished|Unfurnished)/i);
    const updated = (text.match(/(\d+)\s*([dhwmy])\s*ago/) || [])[0];
    items.push({
      url: a.href,
      title: a.textContent.trim().slice(0, 200),
      id: m && m[1],
      bhk: m && parseFloat(rentM ? rentM[3] : buyM[2]),
      bhk_unit: m && (rentM ? rentM[4] : buyM[3]),       // 'bhk' | 'rk' | 'r'
      property_type: m && (rentM ? rentM[5] : buyM[4]),  // apartment | independent_house | independent_floor | villa | ...
      locality_slug: m && (rentM ? rentM[6] : buyM[5]),
      price_text: priceTxt || null,                      // rent: '₹30,000' / buy: '₹2.1 Cr'
      price_rs: buyM ? parseInt(buyM[6]) : null,         // exact integer rupees (buy only — encoded in URL)
      sqft: sqftM ? parseInt(sqftM[1]) : null,
      furnishing: furnM ? furnM[1] : null,               // rent only — buy listings don't surface this in card
      updated: updated || null,                          // '2w ago', '1d ago', '5h ago'
      verified: /Verified/.test(text),
      no_brokerage: /No Brokerage/.test(text),
      posted_by_owner: /\bOwner\b/.test(text) && !/Property Owner\?/.test(text),
    });
  }
  return items;
})()

Yields ~30 listings per page. Card-level text walking is needed because the anchor textContent only carries the title — price / sqft / furnishing / "Owner" / "Verified" badges live in sibling DOM nodes.

6. Pagination

The SERP carries ?page=N links at the bottom. Direct browse open to ?page=2 is BLOCKED (returns Security Alert and burns the session — even on a warm session that just successfully rendered page 1). Pagination must be done via in-page click on the existing pagination anchor:

browse eval "(() => {
  const links = [...document.querySelectorAll('a[href*=\"page=2\"]')];
  if (!links.length) return null;
  const el = links[links.length - 1];   // bottom-of-page pagination, not in-list duplicates
  el.scrollIntoView();
  el.click();
  return el.href;
})()" --remote --session "$SID"
browse wait load --remote --session "$SID"
browse wait timeout 3000 --remote --session "$SID"

Verify with browse get url and browse get title — title still reads Flats for Rent in <City> …, URL ends ?page=N. Verify with Showing 31 - 60 of 23,799 text in the body for page 2.

7. Filters (optional, in-page click only)

The SERP renders filter anchors as static <a> links you can read off the DOM. Same constraint as pagination: in-page click only, no direct browse open.

Filter categoryURL slug pattern (rent SERP)Codes
BHK/rent/{prefix}-flats-for-rent-in-{city}-{state}-C{N}P{polygonId}bitmask: C1=1RK, C2=1BHK, C4=2BHK, C8=3BHK; sum for combinations (e.g. C6 = 1BHK+2BHK)
Listed by/rent/withoutbrokerage-flats-for-rent-in-{city}-{state}-D2P{polygonId}D2 = Owner only (no broker)
Furnishing/rent/{prefix}-flats-for-rent-in-{city}-{state}-G{N}P{polygonId}G1 = Fully, G2 = Semi, G4 = Unfurnished
Property type/rent/{prefix}-for-rent-in-{city}-{state}-M{N}P{polygonId}M1 = Apartment, M2 = Independent House, M4 = Independent Floor

The URL-slug prefix (e.g. 1bhk-flats, withoutbrokerage-flats, furnished-flats, apartments) is rewritten by the page when filters apply. Multiple filter codes can stack (e.g. C2D2P38f9yfbk7p3m2h1f = 1BHK + owner-only). For the agent harvesting the listings, the safest approach is to read these filter hrefs off the DOM after the initial SERP render and click them in-page; do not try to construct them yourself and then browse open — that will trip Akamai.

8. Release session

browse cloud sessions update "$SID" --status REQUEST_RELEASE

Site-Specific Gotchas

  • READ-ONLY. Never click "Contact", "Post Property FREE", "Login", "+ Add" (saved searches), or any form-submit element. Stay on the SERP / listing detail pages.
  • Akamai Bot Manager. Without --verified --proxies, every URL returns Security Alert / Request Blocked (block reference ID + real client IP printed on the interstitial). --verified is the critical flag; --proxies provides an additional residential IP layer that further reduces the rate of stale-fingerprint blocks.
  • Direct deep-URL navigation is blocked even on warm sessions. Confirmed across multiple runs: browse open https://housing.com/rent/flats-for-rent-in-bangalore-karnataka-P38f9yfbk7p3m2h1f on a cold OR warm session → Security Alert. Same for /in/buy/flats-for-sale-in-bangalore-karnataka-..., /in/buy/mumbai/?page=2, and /rent/.../P...?page=2. Always navigate via homepage → typeahead → search-button click for the first SERP, then in-page anchor clicks for filters and pagination.
  • browse cloud fetch returns 406 Not Acceptable for every housing.com URL — proxies don't help. The Edge-Cache-Tag header shows Akamai recognizes the request as bot-class and refuses on the basis of TLS fingerprint + missing JS challenge cookies. Don't waste time on the fetch path.
  • GraphQL mightyzeus-mum.housing.com/api/gql?apiName=… exists but has no listings endpoint. Discovered names from a real SERP load: CITY_LIST_API, CITY_URLS_LIST, CHECK_PAGE_DATA, FETCH_FLAT_COUNT, GET_BULK_SERP_URL, SEO_API, TYPE_AHEAD_API, GET_MEGA_MENU, GET_FOOTER_HOMEPAGE, GET_EDGE_ORDER_TYPES, HOME_FETCH_DYNAMIC_CARDS. None return individual listings — the SERP renders listings server-side and embeds them into the initial HTML. Don't try GraphQL.
  • Akamai poisons the session on a bad request. A single failed direct nav (e.g. browse open …?page=2) typically returns the session to the Security Alert state, and even browse back to the previously-good URL stays on Security Alert. If the session goes Security Alert, release it and start a new one — re-warming the same session usually doesn't recover.
  • Listings are server-rendered into the initial HTML. window.__INITIAL_STATE__ contains cookies / shell / seo / meta / appState / favorites / feed / ... keys but no serpListings or properties array — the listings live only in the DOM. Pure DOM extraction via the snippet in step 5 is the canonical path.
  • document.title carries the total count. Format: Flats for Rent in <City> | <N>+ Rental Flats in <City> (rent) or Flats in <City> | <N>+ <City> Flats for Sale (buy). Parse the <N>+ integer; this is the most reliable total — the in-card Showing X - Y of Z text exists but renders ~1s after wait load and Z is comma-formatted (23,799).
  • Polygon IDs (P…) are per-city, opaque, and not in any sitemap. Bangalore-Karnataka = P38f9yfbk7p3m2h1f, Pune-Maharashtra = P2r4v3l939lxd541t. Discover them by completing the typeahead+search flow once per city and persisting the resulting SERP URL to a local cache; they're stable across days.
  • Bangalore is named "Bengaluru" on the SERP (and in listing slugs like Bengaluru). The typeahead accepts either; the dropdown row reads Bangalore, Karnataka with the secondary badge CITY | BENGALURU.
  • Listing detail slug encodes BHK as bhk / rk / r. 1-bhk, 1-rk (1-room kitchen — studio-equivalent), 1-r (1-room with no kitchen — bedsit). The r and rk units count as 1 BHK for arithmetic but are distinct property classes on housing.com.
  • Rent prices are per-month in ₹ (no /month suffix in the slug or card text — implied). Buy prices in the slug are in absolute rupees (e.g. for-rs-21000000 = ₹2.1 Cr); the card-text formatted price uses Lakh/Crore. Always prefer price_rs from the buy slug for arithmetic.
  • Showing 31 - 60 of N confirms 30 listings per SERP page (Bangalore returned 28-34 anchors per page including some duplicate gallery / video preview overlays — dedupe by href). Total pages = ceil(N / 30).
  • "Continue last search" can hijack the homepage. If the user has a saved search cookie (visible after one prior SERP visit), the homepage BUY tab pre-fills Bangalore and the textbox click skips the empty state. The typeahead flow still works, but the dropdown opens immediately when you click the textbox. Re-snapshot before clicking listitems — the refs are different from a virgin session.
  • The + Add button next to the city name on a SERP opens a multi-city add-city flyout — don't click it during read-only extraction.
  • Cold sessions don't trip immediately on the homepage — https://housing.com/ itself loads cleanly with no Security Alert. The blocking happens on the next deep URL navigation if it didn't originate from a UI interaction.

Expected Output

{
  "success": true,
  "city": "Bengaluru",
  "intent": "rent",
  "serp_url": "https://housing.com/rent/flats-for-rent-in-bangalore-karnataka-P38f9yfbk7p3m2h1f",
  "polygon_id": "P38f9yfbk7p3m2h1f",
  "total_results": 21561,
  "page": 1,
  "listings_per_page": 30,
  "listings": [
    {
      "id": "19064977",
      "title": "1 BHK Flat for rent in ITI Employees Housing Colony, Dooravani Nagar",
      "bhk": 1,
      "bhk_unit": "bhk",
      "property_type": "apartment",
      "locality_slug": "dooravani-nagar-bengaluru",
      "price_text": "₹25,000",
      "price_rs": null,
      "sqft": 1000,
      "furnishing": "Semi furnished",
      "updated": "2w ago",
      "verified": true,
      "no_brokerage": false,
      "posted_by_owner": false,
      "url": "https://housing.com/rent/19064977-1000-sqft-1-bhk-apartment-on-rent-in-dooravani-nagar-bengaluru"
    }
  ]
}

For a buy SERP, intent: "buy", serp_url ends /in/buy/{city}/, polygon_id is null (buy URLs don't carry it), and each listing has price_rs populated from the URL slug (for-rs-21000000 → 21000000) plus a price_text like "₹2.1 Cr" from the card:

{
  "id": "19915286",
  "title": "2 BHK Flat in Chandivali, Powai",
  "bhk": 2,
  "property_type": "apartment",
  "locality_slug": "powai",
  "price_text": "₹2.1 Cr",
  "price_rs": 21000000,
  "sqft": 1050,
  "url": "https://housing.com/in/buy/resale/page/19915286-2-bhk-apartment-in-powai-for-rs-21000000"
}

Failure modes:

// Session blocked by Akamai (cold session OR direct deep-URL nav OR session got poisoned)
{ "success": false, "reason": "akamai_blocked", "block_reference_id": "0.ccd02e17.1779372652.dfeb8700", "real_client_ip": "52.41.230.44" }

// Typeahead returned no CITY-tier match for the input string
{ "success": false, "reason": "city_not_found", "input": "Atlantis" }

// SERP rendered but zero listings (rare — usually means a hyper-narrow filter combo)
{ "success": true, "city": "Bengaluru", "intent": "rent", "total_results": 0, "listings": [] }