There are a number of reasons why RightMove wont give you the property postcode. Regardless of the motive it can be inconvenient not have vital information to value the property with.

I’ve found this very useful for

a) conducting valuation due diligence on leads prior to purchase (leads normally only provide postcodes such as HA2 XXX rather than HA2 7TY which makes valuations difficult

b) valuations on any rightmove property

So after a little digging around here’s how I managed to get the goodies…

Step 1) Find the property you want and click on the MAP icon on RightMove. Here’s our example property:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-9477192.rsp?pa_n=1&tr_t=buy

Map should take you here:

http://www.aboutmyplace.co.uk/showmap?id=9477192&type=property&poi=property

Step 2) Open up the page’s source code. On Firefox you can click “CTRL+U” (I believe same for internet explorer). Either way you can right click and “VIEW SOURCE” or use the top tab “VIEW > SOURCE”.

You should now see a whole lot of jargon, unfamiliar if you don’t know HTML. Don’t let that bother you.

Step 3) Navigate down the code to find the lat/long co-ordinates. You can scroll down or you can simply FIND it using “CTRL+F”. Try CTRL+F then type in “GetPointMap”. Eventually through scroll or search you’ll happen upon the magic numbers we’re looking for in this format:

function init() {
GetPointMap(’-0.3550722367361886′, ‘51.581756220933336′, 15, mapStyle, ‘rmpointer’, ‘property’);

Step 4) Let’s go now to Streetmap grid converter

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?GridConvert

In this box we need to paste in our co-ordinates. Now you need to do this carefully because there are 2 points here to observe:

a) They need to be reversed
b) They need to each be followed by a comma

e.g.

enter in 51.581756220933336, -0.3550722367361886,

Note trailing comma + X/Y coordinates reversed

Step 5) Select Lat/Long on the checkboxes

Step 6) Click the “Convert” button

Step 7) Et Voila! You should have your postcode in front of you

You can check it’s accuracy by clicking the “click here to see location” link on Streetmap to compare with Rightmove. I’ve found 99% accuracy on this.

If you found this useful, leave a reply!