homesandproperty.co.uk Breaks Away

The London Evening Standard’s established property news website, homesandproperty.co.uk, now includes a property search section. The move to launch what the newspaper describes as a property portal represents a separation from The Digital Property Group (TDPG), which previously counted homesandproperty.co.uk amongst the websites in its network.

homesandproperty.co.uk publishes news, reviews and features on the property market written by London Evening Standard staff. The new property portal, created by HomeFlow Network, allows users to search properties for sale or rent and to view results on a page that shows listings alongside a map displaying their location.

Moving around the map automatically updates the visible listings so they correspond, and a Google Street View option is also included. The London Evening Standard says these listings are updated in real time.

homesandproperty.co.uk is offering agents an initial period of free listings, with “flexible arrangements”, including a pay-per-lead option, promised further down the line.

The Evening Standard became a free publication in October 2009. Managing director Andrew Mullins explained how the new property portal fits into his business plan:

“The core aim of moving to a free newspaper model was to secure a stable and growing audience of affluent Londoners. Very few newspapers can guarantee such scale or promise such future stability. We now need to develop market-leading, off- and on-line, commercial propositions and creating our own stand alone property web portal, to work synergistically with Homes & Property, is the first of these.”

homesandproperty.co.uk is still listed as one of Daily Mail and General Trust plc’s property websites, as are TDPG’s portals – primelocation.com, findaproperty.com, and findanewhome.com. However, it appears all references to homesandproperty.co.uk have now been removed from TDPG’s website.

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