PropertyFinder.com Sold To Zoopla.co.uk

Published: August 10, 2009 at 7:05 PM | Author: Administrator
News Source: Property Portal Watch

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The rumours of REA Group owned propertyfinder.com’s potential sale to zoopla.co.uk have been confirmed, with the two companies issuing statements today.

The REA Group issued a statement saying it and News International Ltd had completed a share sale of their jointly owned UK online business, which runs the propertyfinder.com, hotproperty.co.uk and ukpropertyshop.co.uk websites, to Zoopla Limited.

The sale ends their review of their UK online business. Greg Ellis, CEO of REA Group, said: “We are pleased the review of our UK operations has resulted in the successful sale of the business. Zoopla.co.uk is an exciting entrant to the UK property portal market and we wish the team well for the future. Along with the sale of REA’s interest in its UAE business which we announced to the market last week, this sale of REA’s interest in its UK business has been taken in line with our strategy to focus on the Australian market and international markets where our market position is strong and the market size and market dynamics are attractive.”

Meanwhile zoopla.co.uk, which also acquired thinkproperty.com from GMG recently, is clearly trying to make a mark in the competitive UK portal market. The sale price remains undisclosed.

A press release from zoopla.co.uk says it will take over and integrate the propertyfinder.com website and other two websites, benefiting from an additional 3 million unique visitors a month. zoopla.co.uk says that the combined group will power an impressive range of property partnerships with leading UK websites including MSN, Yahoo!, AOL, Guardian, Tiscali, Sky and Virgin amongst others.

The deal stands to place zoopla.co.uk in a very strong position, providing it with the propertyfinder.com audience, its long-standing industry position and relationships which will enable zoopla.co.uk to further its growth. It remains to be seen if the acquisition will let it present a challenge to the dominant market leader rightmove.co.uk.

Zoopla.co.uk is selling the deal as a win for consumers, who will benefit from more listings and information on the UK property market, and also for agents, who will gain more exposure and receive more leads as well as gaining access to the enhanced features and tools offered by zoopla.co.uk including owner leads.

Alex Chesterman, founder and CEO of zoopla.co.uk said: “This is a transformational deal both for our business and for the online property landscape in the UK. Our organic growth over the past year has been exceptional but this acquisition is a great fit for us and will accelerate us significantly towards our goal of becoming the most efficient marketing partner for UK estate agents by providing them the widest possible exposure and best value online marketing services.”

Nicholas Leeming, co-founder of propertyfinder.com, will remain with the business. He added: “The strength of zoopla.co.uk in consumer and data services are a perfect fit with the long standing agent relationships, industry expertise and established levels of consumer traffic of the PropertyFinder Group. Combined we will deliver enormous value to estate agent clients across the UK. Our focus remains on providing excellent service for our member firms and this deal will allow us to further deliver on that promise.”