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Regional publishers to launch new property site

Three local newspaper publishers are teaming up to launch a new property website they hope will be a rival to market leader Rightmove.

Iliffe News and Media, Midland News Association and the Baylis Media Group hope to launch the portal, which is currently under development, early next year.

The three media groups have commissioned an technology provider, Collabera, to build the site, which will be designed to give estate agents a “competitive alternative” to Rightmove.

It will include white label capability to enable other local media publishers to join it at a later date.

David Fordham, chief executive of Iliffe News and Media, said: “This is an exciting development that we genuinely believe will provide our estate agents with a truly competitive local alternative to the likes of Rightmove.”

Collabera developed the world’s largest property portal www.move.com which operates in the US.

The three publishers are not the first to venture into the already crowded online property market.

Trinity Mirror and Newsquest already operate the property site Fish4Homes while Associated Northcliffe Digital, the digital arm of DMGT, runs findaproperty.com.