REA buys UKpropertyshop

THE REA Group has snapped up UKpropertyshop, an online real estate agents directory company for £530,000 ($A1.1 million).

The purchase was made through REA Group’s 50%-owned United Kingdom subsidiary, Propertyfinder Holdings Ltd.

Launched in 1999, ukpropertyshop.co.uk is one of the UK’s most comprehensive estate agent directories, listing the details of 17,000 UK agent offices in 3,000 towns. In April this year, it was visited by 592,000 people, making it the 7th most popular property site in the UK.

UKpropertyshop has been operating at a slight profit with a business model focused on selling agents priority placements to promote their business details.

Propertyfinder Holdings will run ukpropertyshop.co.uk in parallel with its existing propertyfinder.com and hotproperty.co.uk property search portals. Agents who purchase a propertyfinder sub scri ption will have their property listings displayed on all three sites for the price of one sub scri ption.

REA Group’s share price closed 17 cents lower at $4.21 yesterday.

Australian Property Journal