Zoopla snaps up homes sold portal

Wednesday 5th January 2011

Property portal Zoopla has acquired a ‘sold prices’ website, Houseprices.co.uk

The deal, for an undisclosed sum, mirrors the purchase last summer of Mouseprice, also a sold prices website, by Zoopla’s competitor Digital Property Group – the Daily Mail-owned portfolio of portals FindaProperty and Primelocation.

Launched in 2005, Houseprices.co.uk was one of the first websites in the UK to offer Land Registry sold house price information free to consumers.

According to Zoopla, it quickly became, and has since remained, the leading stand-alone website for property price paid data in the UK, attracting over a million visits per month and consistently listed as one of the Top 10 most-visited property websites in the UK, according to Nielsen (source: MediaTel/UKOM).

The service offers users free access to over 11 million house price paid records in England and Wales that have sold since 2000.

It will continue to be operated as a separate brand and website by Zoopla but will now link directly to the Zoopla.co.uk website, allowing users to easily access local properties for sale, current property value estimates and other features and tools available on the Zoopla.co.uk website.

Alex Chesterman, founder and CEO of Zoopla, recently announced an injection of new funding to help the site’s expansion.

He said of the latest acquisition: “It adds to the growing list of websites that we now either own directly or power exclusively, extending our reach even further and allowing us to offer our agent and developer members exposure to a unique and unrivalled online audience.

“Houseprices.co.uk has built a very strong following over the years by offering a great service, which we intend to continue.”