Zoopla completes purchase of Propertyfinder

Zoopla.co.uk  today announced that it had completed the acquisition of the debt-ridden PropertyFinder Group from News International and the REA Group, for an undisclosed sum. It now plans to mount an assault on Rightmove's leading position.

The PropertyFinder Group includes propertyfinder.com, HotProperty.co.uk and UKPropertyshop.co.uk.

This latest announcement by Zoopla.co.uk comes hot on the heels of its acquisition a couple of weeks ago of ThinkProperty from Guardian Media Group. Under the deal, Zoopla.co.uk will take over and integrate the propertyfinder.com and other websites, giving it an extra three million visitors a month.  The acquisition is the latest for relative newcomer Zoopla.co.uk, taking over one of the most-established players in the market, propertyfinder.com, acquired by News International Ltd and REA Group in late 2005 along with HotProperty.co.uk and UKPropertyShop.co.uk that were added to the group last year.

 Zoopla boss will take over at the helm of Propertyfinder, whilst co-founder Nick Leeming stays on. Former Propertyfinder CEO Gillian Kent is understood to have left the business. Nor is it clear how the new combined website will be branded. The combined strength of Zoopla and Propertyfinder still, however, trails Rightmove's dominance.

The latest ComScore figures show that Rightmove retains first place in terms of total website visitor numbers.

In second place are the combined four websites of the Digital Property Group, and in third place comes PropertyFinder.

Globrix is in fourth place and Zoopla is in eighth. In fifth place is Homeswapper, a portal for social housing tenants who want to swap homes. Fish4Homes is in ninth place and tenth is PropertyNews, a Northern Ireland property portal.

1. Rightmove
2. The Digital Property Group
3. PropertyFinder
4. Globrix
5. Homeswapper
6. Nestoria
7. Trovit UK
8. Zoopla
9. Fish4Homes
10. PropertyNews