Zoopla continues property site roll up – acquires Houseprices.co.uk

Real estate startup Zoopla continues it land grab today, announcing that it’s acquired Houseprices.co.uk, which when launched in 2005 was one of the first sites to offer free property price data for the UK and is currently the leader in the space. The terms of the deal are undisclosed but, having secured a further £3.25 million in funding in December (adding to the £3.75 million already raised in January 2009), Zoopla would appear to have deep enough pockets to roll up competitors and complementary sites in equal measure – something that it’s already been doing plenty of.

In August of last year, Zoopla acquired property technology company Byteplay Ltd, whose assets include OnOneMap.com, DotHomes.com and Extate.com, along with operating the local ‘propertygazette’ websites bristolpropertygazette.co.uk and coventrypropertygazette.co.uk and a host of others covering UK towns and cities. This followed the purchase of the PropertyFinder Group the year before.

In terms of how Housepices.co.uk fits into the mix, the site sees over 1 million visits per month, making it one of the “top 10 most-visited property websites in the UK”, according to the company (citing web traffic measurement company Nielsen). It offers users free access to over 11 million house price paid records in England and Wales for properties that have sold since 2000.

Described as a “natural fit”, Zoopla will, however, keep Houseprices.co.uk as a standalone brand and site but with a link to provide users with “access to local properties for sale, current property value estimates and other features and tools” available via the Zoopla.co.uk website. Estate agents and homebuilders are also said to benefit since ads placed on Zoopla will now see greater exposure and potential leads.

And with all that money in the bank, Zoopla continues to spend big on advertising. A further TV ad campaign kicked off this month following the same theme of tongue-in-cheek anecdotes from house hunters.