Words: Ashley Rigg
Published: 8th July 2008
Global property giant to hit 10 million monthly users
Money may not be able to buy you love, but it can buy you traffic. Global Property Giant
REA Group has added another 590,000 unique users a month to its global reach of nearly 10 million unique visitors per month with the purchase of
UKPropertyShop for £530,000. The business, which turns over “approximately £140k a year and is only marginally profitable” was bought for “marketing reasons”, according to REA Group CEO Simon Baker. On a cost-per-unique basis, it works out at 7.5p per unique user over a 12-month period.
UKPropertyShop is a large UK estate agent directory which lists agent businesses for free but charges approximately £300 a year to agents who want to receive leads. It’s been run by two people as a small business but has been “under-resourced and has huge potential”, according to Baker.
UKPropertyShop will sit in REA Group’s 50%-owned UK subsidiary, Propertyfinder Holdings Ltd., which owns Propertyfinder.com and HotProperty.co.uk. UK and international agents will be able to list on all three websites for one monthly subscription price.
The acquisition adds to REA Group’s already vast empire of property portals which includes Australian market leader realestate.com.au, Italian portal casa.it, Dubai-based propertyfinder.ae and European portal athome.at.