New appointment at whitehotproperty

Owen Burns has been appointed business development director of whitehotproperty, the controversial spin-off brand of movewithus.

Burns joins from The Academy, where he was managing director of the online training organisation that was a joint initiative with high-profile Peter Knight of Phoenix.

Before The Academy, the likeable Burns was in a senior sales position with REA – co-owner of Propertyfinder, the portal whose future is now at a crossroads.

The Academy has also had its challenges in the housing market downturn, and recently launched free training.

An Australian, Burns worked for REA for around seven years. He moved from Sydney to London to help spearhead Propertyfinder’s development, leaving some two years ago.

Whitehotproperty claims to be the UK’s only website that exclusively sells properties such as repossessions, part-exchanges and probates from corporate vendors. ‘White hot’ usually means that properties must be sold.

However, the proposition has proved controversial with the 1,000-plus agents who are part of the movewithus network, who – rightly or wrongly – see it as bypassing them.

However, Burns emphasised that he was looking forward to working with estate agents and delivering value.

He said: “I am thrilled to join whitehotproperty and hope to give the business a clear focus.

“Making the whitehot proposition relevant to the consumer will be one of my first main tasks. I will be working with what is already an incredibly strong team and I am really looking forward to the challenge.”

Propertyfinder is facing closure, REA has revealed, after making heavy losses. However, its management team is rustling up support for a buy out.