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| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Zoopla to buy Hometrack for £120m | Zoopla to buy Hometrack for £120m |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| One of the UK's leading online property sales websites, Zoopla, is going to buy the Hometrack website for £120m. | One of the UK's leading online property sales websites, Zoopla, is going to buy the Hometrack website for £120m. |
| Hometrack provides information and data on the property market for both individual users and property professionals, especially property valuations. | Hometrack provides information and data on the property market for both individual users and property professionals, especially property valuations. |
| Zoopla already owns the price comparison service, Uswitch, and the property sales website, Primelocation. | Zoopla already owns the price comparison service, Uswitch, and the property sales website, Primelocation. |
| Alex Chesterman, boss of Zoopla, said he was "delighted" to buy Hometrack. | Alex Chesterman, boss of Zoopla, said he was "delighted" to buy Hometrack. |
| He described it as "the clear market leader in automatic valuation model (AVM) services in the UK and a leading player in Australia". | He described it as "the clear market leader in automatic valuation model (AVM) services in the UK and a leading player in Australia". |
| "The deal will allow us to serve our consumers and partners even more effectively and gives us unrivalled data capabilities in the residential property market. | "The deal will allow us to serve our consumers and partners even more effectively and gives us unrivalled data capabilities in the residential property market. |
| "Hometrack is a perfect fit to develop our data services business," he added. | "Hometrack is a perfect fit to develop our data services business," he added. |
| Automatic valuations | |
| Hometrack was set up in 1999 and expanded into Australia in 2007. | |
| Unlike Zoopla, which was launched in 2008 and which advertises properties for sale or to let on behalf of estate agents and landlords, Hometrack provides information for mortgage lenders, investors, home buyers and particularly automatic online valuations of individual properties. | |
| The company says that 17 of the UK's top mortgage lenders use its valuation services. | |
| Hometrack employs only 55 staff in both the UK and Australia and will continue to operate as a separate business. | |
| Its chief executive, Charlie Bryant, said: "We have had a long-standing relationship with Zoopla and share the same vision of using data to help our partners operate more effectively." |