Manchester City part owners look to cash out - reports
As the battle for supremacy in the UK’s digital property space intensifies, one of Rightmove’s key competitors has been quietly placed on the auction block. Zoopla, the online real estate platform founded in 2008, is now being marketed with a reported valuation of around £500 million — a move that could reshape the competitive dynamics of an increasingly crowded sector.
The sale is being orchestrated by Silver Lake Partners, the American private equity giant that acquired Zoopla’s parent group in 2018 in a £1.6 billion transaction. That broader organisation, now branded as Houseful, also includes consumer-facing platforms such as Confused.com, Uswitch, Money.co.uk, and Hometrack, as well as the Dutch property data company Calcasa.
READ MORE: Zoopla names Whitehead CEO in leadership restructure
While Zoopla declined to respond to questions about the reported sale, news of the move emerged via the Home Front property podcast hosted by industry commentator Russell Quirk, and was later independently confirmed by financial outlets including City AM.
Behind the scenes, Zoopla has been engaged in a slow but deliberate financial recovery. After swinging back to profitability in 2023, the company reported pre-tax earnings of £18.7 million — reversing a £6.2 million loss from the year before — with revenues inching up to £90.4 million. However, that return to the black was accompanied by a significant headcount reduction, with staff numbers falling by nearly 20% to 388. The site currently partners with Halifax – sending potential mortgage borrowers to the big lender’s mortgage calculator.
READ MORE: REA Withdraws Its Bid for Rightmove After Multiple Rejections, Share Price Plummets
The performance mirrored a broader rebound within the parent company. Houseful slashed its group-wide pre-tax losses from over £700 million in 2022 to £134.9 million in 2023, while revenue climbed from £391 million to £451.5 million. The group’s ability to stabilise its finances has sparked speculation that Silver Lake may now be seeking to recoup value through asset sales or restructuring.
Rightmove Stays Independent — for Now
The potential divestment of Zoopla comes at a time of heightened M&A interest in the UK’s property tech space. Late last year, Australian-based REA Group — majority-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp — withdrew its fourth and final attempt to acquire Rightmove, after the UK firm’s board rejected a £6.2 billion proposal combining cash and shares.
READ MORE: Rightmove sees revenue jump but profit drops
REA’s leadership had pitched the merger as a transformative opportunity to create a cross-market digital property powerhouse, linking its Australian holdings, including realestate.com.au, with Rightmove’s dominant position in the UK. But Rightmove’s board, citing valuation concerns and doubts over strategic alignment, rebuffed the offer — despite mounting shareholder frustration over its slow stock growth.
Rightmove, which retains an 86% share of the UK property listings market, reported £389.4 million in revenue for 2024, comfortably outpacing Zoopla’s topline. Still, increasing competition from new entrants such as CoStar and the evolving ambitions of players like Zoopla have added new urgency to Rightmove’s long-term strategy, particularly in adjacent areas like mortgage broking.
A Sector in Flux
While Rightmove fends off suitors and Zoopla seeks new ownership, the UK’s property portal industry finds itself at a crossroads. Fragmentation in online search, regulatory headwinds in mortgage markets, and shifting consumer habits have all placed pressure on incumbents to evolve — or merge.
For Silver Lake, whose portfolio includes investments in technology, mobility, and sport — among them Manchester City’s parent company and driverless car firm Waymo — a sale of Zoopla could be a strategic exit in an increasingly competitive field. Whether the buyer will be a rival operator, a private equity fund, or a global digital player remains to be seen.
What is clear is that consolidation is no longer a distant possibility but a live conversation. As interest rates, property prices and consumer confidence remain volatile, platforms that once thrived on listings alone are being asked to deliver more — in data, in services, and in investor returns.
In that context, Zoopla’s £500 million price tag may prove to be a litmus test: not just of its own value, but of what’s next for Britain’s digital property frontier.
