Zoopla pays £75 million for Property Software Group

Property portal Zoopla is hoping to win the loyalty of estate agents away from rivals Rightmove and OnTheMarket with the purchase of leading estate agency software for £75 million.

Zoopla will acquire B2B service provider Property Software Group (PSG), which will give the househunting website access to the back-office systems used by around 8,000 UK estate agency branches, as well as the chance to bring them onto its own portal.

PSG was acquired by Lloyd’s private equity offshoot LDC from the Guardian Media Group in a deal worth £17.8 million in late 2013. The new £75 million deal with Zoopla will generate a significant return on LDC’s investment. PSG recently posted revenues of £5.1 million in the year to March 2016.

Alex Chesterman, the PSG founder and chief executive, said of the deal: “This acquisition is a game-changer, combining Zoopla's best-in-class property marketing solutions with PSG's best-in-class property workflow solutions, and will transform the services available for both UK agents and consumers.”

Zoopla has made a series of acquisitions in recent years. It’s primary portal is used by around 16,700 estate agents, while its chief rivals Rightmove and OnTheMarket have around 19,700 and 6,000 agents respectively.

The latest acquisition is still subject to approval from the Financial Conduct Authority, but this is understood to not pose too much of a problem. As part of the deal, PSG chief executive Mark Goddard will become the CEO of Zoopla's property services division.

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