Propertyfinder.co.uk has joined asserta home in a deal that combines the UK’s leading upmarket property website with the UK’s leading national home-buying portal.
Propertyfinder.co.uk has joined asserta home in a deal that combines the UK’s leading upmarket property website with the UK’s leading national home-buying portal.
The two sites will continue to operate under separate brands and web addresses, and have links to each other, offering home-sellers the broadest market for their homes. Homebuyers will have the largest choice of properties online with access to asserta home’s 200,000 properties nationwide and propertyfinder’s 105,000 upmarket properties with a combined estimated property value of Ł40bn. The group will be the biggest single source of online referrals to estate agents in the UK, and both companies will strengthen their positions as the clear leaders in a rapidly consolidating market.
The deal means that propertyfinder.co.uk is now acquired by asserta holdings Limited, which also owns asserta home, and is the culmination of an intensive investigation by each into the best consolidation opportunities. CGNU plc will continue to have a majority share in asserta holdings, whilst introducing propertyfinder’s majority shareholders – Hamptons International and Arts Alliance – to the board as minority shareholders. Significant development of both brands is planned in order to meet the needs of their respective markets going forward.
The combined entity will be headed up by David Lundholm, recently appointed as managing director of asserta holdings Limited. James and Nicholas Leeming, who founded propertyfinder.co.uk in 1995, will continue in the new venture in their current roles.
Commenting on the move David Lundholm said, “propertyfinder is an excellent company with a strong brand, well-established relationships with many of the UK’s leading estate agents and an upmarket audience. Joining forces enhances our ability to make the home-finding, -buying, -moving and living experience more simple and less stressful for our users”.
Rupert Morley, formerly CEO of propertyfinder.co.uk, who brokered the deal on their behalf, said: “This is great news for propertyfinder’s shareholders, estate agents and consumers. asserta will have the resources to significantly increase the exposure of the propertyfinder.co.uk brand and invest in technology. There is only going to be one winner in this marketplace and having considered a number of alternative partners we found that asserta has the best vision, most reliable technology, most dynamic management and most credible shareholders. It is also the leader in traffic, listings and branding. In twelve months’ time I expect the property portal industry to look very different as a result.”
The online property market has experienced rapid growth in user levels over the last 12 months, with agents reporting up to 50% of their transactions originating online, and this trend is expected to continue. The deal with propertyfinder.co.uk follows three previous acquisitions by asserta Holdings Ltd in the last 18 months – UKPG, GMW software and Smove. Subsidiary asserta home has also developed partnerships with other leading dotcom players such as Improveline, Charcol online, and Schooolsnet.
For further information please contact:
Joanna Burton
asserta home
T: 0207 922 5035
M: 07715 163 914
E: joanna_burton@assertahome.com
Tina Muggridge/Laura Hastings
Lansons Communications
T: 0207 490 8828
M: 07961 864631
E: tinam@lansons.com; laurah@lansons.com
Charlie Snell
propertyfinder.co.uk
T: 020 8939 2307
M: 07979 601 434
E: charlie.snell@propertyfinder.co.uk
About asserta home
asserta home is the UK’s leading home-buying portal. asserta home (www.assertahome.com) aims to make home-buying and moving simpler and less stressful by providing the largest, up-to-date database of properties for sale or rent, invaluable information and advice, and a selection of quality, moving- related services.
The database, which is updated daily and contains details on over 200,000 properties, can be searched with a choice of 16 search criteria, e.g. price, location, schools etc. asserta home will send e-mail or SMS messages to alert users that a new property, meeting specific requirements, has just been added to the database.
asserta home is a one-stop-shop for the entire moving process. It includes details of a selection of quality services providing mortgages, surveys, removals, change of address, neighbourhood information as well as advice on interior design and DIY. asserta home partners with AOL, Altavista, Excite, Freeserve, Yell and Lycos.
asserta home launched in May 2000 and is an independent business previously funded solely by CGNU.
Key Statistics
| Monthly page impressions | 5.9 million* |
| Monthly unique visitors | 219,000 |
| Ave. number of pages viewed | 17 per visit |
| Estate agents | Almost 5,500 branches |
About asserta holdings asserta holdings Limited is the core company in the asserta group — the market leader in the online property and estate agency services market. The asserta group comprises:
- asserta home Limited - the UK’s leading home buying portal,
- propertyfinder.co.uk – the UK’s leading top-end home buying portal,
- GMW - the leading provider of estate agency software solutions and
- asserta business – the group’s new estate agent B2B property portal
About CGNU CGNU plc is the UK’s largest insurance group and one of the top five insurers in Europe with substantial positions in other markets around the world, making it the world’s sixth largest insurer based on gross worldwide premiums.
About propertyfinder.co.uk
Propertyfinder.co.uk was founded in 1995 by chartered surveyors Nick and James Leeming as Internet Property Finder Ltd (IPF). By July 2000 it had 20,000 properties from 200 clients.
The company received a Ł5.5m backing from a consortium of venture capitalists led by Arts Alliance and Hamptons International.
Today the company has 105,000 properties with a combined value of Ł24bn, from over 2,300 estate agents offices, including some of the UK’s best-known names: Hamptons, John D Wood, Winkworth, Foxtons, Andrews, Peter Alan, Whitegates, Keith Pattinson, Palmer Snell, Goadsby and Harding, Greenslade Taylor Hunt, Legal & General Franchising and many more.
Key Statistics
| Monthly page impressions | 2.7 million |
| Monthly unique visitors | 69,469 |
| Ave. number of pages viewed | 14 per visit |
| Estate agents | Almost 2,500 branches |