Uploading properties to portals or your website

The process for uploading to property portals is mostly the same across portals, and indeed if you have your own agency website you may wish to feature available properties on there using the same mechanism.

Rightmove's RMv3 Property Feed

UK’s Rightmove property portal initially introduced the Bulk Load Mass (BLM) file format which is used to exchange property data and forms the basis for Rightmove’s RMv3 specification. This was used to upload property data from third-party systems into its portal platform. However, it has since become widely adopted as the de-facto property data format and is used by most portals. The full RMv3 feed specification is attached to this article.

The BLM file is a delimited file similar to a Comma Separated Variable (CSV) file which is often used for data export and import in commonly used applications such as Microsoft Excel, but uses the caret (^) character as the field separator and the tilde (~) character as end of row separators. The file has a number of header records to define the format and the number of rows enclosed. Full details are available in the RMv3 specification (attached). 

Feed Generation

At specified intervals during the day we generate the feed which comprises the BLM file with property data for all properties designated for upload within Solo and Origin, and all accompanying media such as images, brochures, EPCs and floorplans. These files are compressed into a single ZIP file which is then transferred to your server for collection and processing. You need to provide us with the following details for the server to which we will transfer your file: 

• FTP server address
• Username
• Password
• Upload folder

A sample zip file is attached to this article for analysis. 

Integrating Data into Your Website

Your website developer will be able to retrieve the ZIP file from the specified upload directory and process it in whatever way the project requires. This typically involves parsing the BLM data into a generic array structure and then loading it into a local database which the website can then access. Images can be moved to a custom folder and file structure also. Implementation of the website’s browse, search and list functionality is then is fully under the control of your website developer.