Zoopla Hoopla

Sky News has lobbed a rather large stone into the portal pond this week: Silver Lake, the private equity owner of Zoopla (or ZPG, Houseful, or whatever we’re calling it these days), is officially weighing up a sale. Not just the portal, mind, but the whole pick-and-mix bag – Confused.com, Hometrack, Primelocation, Alto, the lot.

For those of us who’ve been following the slow-motion unravelling of Zoopla’s fortunes, this is less of a shock and more of a “well, obviously”. Silver Lake’s original £2.2bn punt on the business in 2018 has, to put it kindly, not exactly delivered the five-star returns of which private equity dreams are made. Now, with OnTheMarket amping the competition from below, AI chewing up incumbents for giggles and Rightmove still hoovering up agent cash with all the subtlety of a Dyson on steroids, the time for a rethink is clearly upon us.

Let’s be honest: Zoopla’s been looking a bit lost for a while. The business has been split into neat little segments – Alto’s been splashing the cash on advertising, the comparison sites are ticking along, and the portal itself has been, well, treading water. Rumours of a £500m price tag were doing the rounds a few months back, but that felt more like Silver Lake rattling the collection tin than a serious expectation. If the whispers of offers closer to £350m – or even less – are true, that’s a sobering haircut for the owners.

So, who’s circling? CoStar remains the obvious suitor. If Andy Florance and his team are serious about taking the fight to Rightmove, snapping up Zoopla is the quickest way to put some real firepower behind OnTheMarket and avoid a costly, drawn-out scrap. Yes, they could spend years and millions trying to outgun whoever does buy Zoopla – or they could just get the chequebook out now and save themselves the bother.

But it’s not just CoStar in the frame. Previous big-names in the industry are also rumoured to be sniffing the portal’s prospects and a publishing house – or even REA Group / Rupert Murdoch, who missed out on Rightmove this time last year – must be on the call lists of those expensive advisors that Zoopla have confirmed are reviewing all options.

With the likes of Alto also potentially up for grabs, you can bet your last CRM login that the big software houses are having a look too. MRI, for example, might fancy adding Alto to its stable, especially given its relatively modest UK presence compared to its Aussie and US operations.

For agents, all this boardroom jostling is both fascinating and faintly exhausting. “Business as usual” is the official line from Zoopla HQ, but anyone who’s ever worked through a sale process knows that’s code for “everyone’s refreshing LinkedIn and wondering what next year’s Christmas party will look like”.

What’s clear is that the portal landscape is about to get another shake-up, and the only certainty is more uncertainty for agents, suppliers and, yes, the good people working at Zoopla themselves. Keep your eyes peeled – this one’s got a while yet to run …