News International snaps up property website

One of the UK’s leading property websites was snapped up today in a £14.3m (€21m) deal involving the owner of The Times newspaper.

Propertyfinder.com, which is used by more than 2,000 estate agents, was jointly purchased by media group News International and Australian property firm realestate.com.au.

The deal for parent company Asserta Holdings is expected to increase awareness of the Propertyfinder brand through News International’s newspapers and websites.

The website will also b able to use realestate’s technology and sales and marketing operations to help boost subscriber numbers.

Propertyfinder was launched in 1995 and is now used by estate agents to advertise more than 200,000 properties for sale and to let. It is visited by more than 700,000 property hunters every month.

News International said: “Propertyfinder will have the clear objective of becoming the leader in the UK online property market.”

Realestate.com.au will have day-to-day control of Propertyfinder, while a separate board will be put in place to oversee strategic operations.

News International, which also owns The Sunday Times, The Sun and News of the World, is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire News Corporation.

Propertyfinder was sold by venture capital firm Arts Alliance and other minority shareholders including management.