# Property search starts with the right locality

> Property portals search by locality first and address second. geolith returns localities, neighbourhoods and street addresses from one /v1/search or /v1/autocomplete call, filtered with layers=locality or layers=address. In the India benchmark (20 Oct 2026) the first result was right for 95.0% of OSM places and 95.0% of OSM addresses. Listing coordinates may be stored permanently, so you geocode each listing once.

## What is location search on a property portal?

Location search on a property portal lets a buyer or renter type a city, neighbourhood or street and see listings there. It needs autocomplete for areas, geocoding for each listing’s address, and area outlines or bounding boxes to frame the map on a neighbourhood.

## Typical flows

A property site uses geocoding in three places.

- Search box: /v1/autocomplete?layers=locality,county for areas, then address for exact listings.
- Listing upload: /v1/search/structured with the address fields the agent typed.
- Area pages: store the gid of each locality and fetch it with /v1/place.

## Area outlines

/v1/place with geometry=true returns outlines for regions, districts and areas mapped as polygons, ready to draw on a map. A place with no outline in the data returns its point, and usually a bbox to frame the map.

## Questions

### Can I show a neighbourhood boundary on the map?

When the area is mapped as a polygon, yes: /v1/place with geometry=true returns its outline. Otherwise you get the point and, usually, a bbox.

### Can I store listing coordinates?

Yes, permanently, on every plan.

## Guides

- https://geolith.app/guides/show-place-boundary-polygon
- https://geolith.app/guides/address-autocomplete-vue-nuxt

Get a free API key (100,000 requests a month): https://console.geolith.app/signup