General6.10.2011

Property24.com buys SAHometraders

The result of this partnership is the country’s biggest property search listing network, which looks set to provide South Africa’s most compelling value proposition as a result of the combined audiences, property listings and pricing.

The SAHometraders audience of over 180 000 visitors per month combines with Property24.com’s 517 000 visitors per month (as measured by the DMMA) to provide the largest online audience of property buyers, sellers and renters to the estate agent industry.

With over 60 000 listed properties, 8 national and 26 regionally targeted websites and ten years of experience in the industry, SAHometraders adds substantial clout to the existing Property24.com offering. Currently the 4th largest property portal in South Africa, SAHometraders boasts the second highest search engine optimisation (SEO) rating in the country, drawing over 180 000 unique users per month to its various websites. This is something that factored strongly into Property24.com General Manager JP Farinha’s decision to propose a partnership.

“After extensive analysis of the country’s top performing property portals, we soon recognised the potential for a great partnership with SAHometraders based on the strength of their SEO performance,” says Farinha. “We soon discovered that their customer base also strongly complements that of Property24.com, with their primary focus on independent estate agents meaning limited property listings overlap, resulting in greater choice and added value for end-users.”

John Botton, CEO of SAHometraders, expressed great excitement at the announcement of the partnership.  “We’re incredibly excited to be involved with Property24.com and to provide estate agents with a larger and more relevant audience of prospective home buyers than ever before,” says Botton. “We service over 500 estate agencies countrywide and are thrilled at the chance to attract a far wider audience, benefiting not only these estate agents but the industry as a whole.”

Whilst the SAHometraders websites will continue to operate separately, the convergence of the back-end operation will result in a wider range of properties on offer across all sites. The addition of SAHometraders’ considerable database to Property24.com’s existing 187 000 properties makes the integrated offering number one in the country in terms of the number of unique properties listed.

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