Houseful Limited is a British residential property software, data, and insight company based in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, owned by

Silver Lake Partners Silver Lake Technology Management, L.L.C., is an American global private equity firm focused on technology and technology-enabled investments. Silver Lake is headquartered in Silicon Valley and New York, and has offices in London, Hong Kong, and ...

. Its brands include the property website Zoopla, automated valuations (AVMs) provider Hometrack, and software brand Alto. Alongside these sites, Houseful owns and operates several brands providing services to estate agents, housebuilders, brokers, lenders, and consumers. These include Jupix, Calcasa, Primelocation, Yourkeys and Mojo. ZPG Ltd., Houseful's previous parent company, which included the brands USwitch and Money.co.uk, was listed on the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

until it was acquired by

in July 2018.

History

The company was originally founded as Zoopla in 2007 by Alex Chesterman and Simon Kain. Chesterman and Kain also founded ScreenSelect (later

LoveFilm LoveFilm was a United Kingdom–based provider of DVD-by-mail and streaming video on demand in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany. Acquired by Amazon.com in 2011, the service had reached 2 million subscribers. It claimed o ...

). The Zoopla website was launched in January 2008. Zoopla was backed by Accomplice, Octopus Ventures and other investors. In July 2009, Zoopla acquired property website Thinkproperty.com from the

Guardian Media Group Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a British-based mass media company owning various media operations including ''The Guardian'', and formerly ''The Observer''. The group is wholly owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which exists to secure the fin ...

. In August 2009, Zoopla acquired the PropertyFinder Group, consisting of the websites Propertyfinder.com, Hotproperty.co.uk and UK Property Shop, from prior owners the REA Group and

News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...

for an undisclosed sum. These businesses had combined annual revenues of £7 million. In January 2011, Zoopla acquired the historic database of UK house prices HousePrices.co.uk. In October 2011, Zoopla and Digital Property Group, the subsidiary of A&N Media, operating property websites Primelocation.com, Globrix.com and FindaProperty.com, merged their respective businesses. In May 2012, Zoopla acquired property information website UpMyStreet.com. In April 2016, Zoopla acquired property software firm PSG for £75 million from Lloyd’s private equity arm LDC. In May 2018, Hometrack sold off the Australian arm of its business for £71m. It was sold to property portal and media business REA. In January 2021, Hometrack acquired the mortgage automation arm of EDM Group. In November 2020, ZPG sold the company Ravensworth back to its original owning entity, The Printed Group. In April 2021, the company acquired software provider Yourkeys.

2012: Formation of Zoopla Property Group (ZPG)

In June 2012, Zoopla and its constabularies formed Zoopla Property Group Ltd. Zoopla's biggest shareholder, the

Daily Mail and General Trust Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) is a British multinational media conglomerate, the owner of the '' Daily Mail'' and several other titles. The 4th Viscount Rothermere is the chair and controlling shareholder of the company. The head office ...

, floated Zoopla on the

in June 2014. In June 2015, Zoopla bought the price comparison website

Uswitch Uswitch Limited is a UK-based price comparison service and switching website founded in 2000. Users can conveniently compare prices across various sectors of energy, personal finance, insurance, and communications History uSwitch.com was fo ...

for £190m. In February 2017, the company changed its name to ZPG plc. In September 2017, Zoopla purchased the financial services comparison website Money.co.uk for £140 million.

2018: Acquisition of ZPG by Silver Lake Partners

In May 2018, US private equity firm

made a $2.2 billion bid for ZPG's property division (now Houseful) and its comparison division RVU. The transaction was completed in July 2018.

2023: ZPG Property Division rebrands as Houseful

In September 2023, the ZPG property division was renamed Houseful to reflect the evolution of the business from a property website to a software, data and insights business in residential property. ZPG’s comparison division remains known as RVU.

Operations

Houseful operates across three distinct business units: Homes, Software, and Data and Risk. The Homes business unit includes Zoopla, Mojo Mortgages, and Prime Location. The Software business unit connects businesses and consumers, powering more than half of all UK housing transactions each year. It includes brands Alto, Jupix, and Yourkeys. The Data and Risk business unit is focused on increased automation across the mortgage lending and wider property industries. It includes the brands of Hometrack and Calcasa.

References

External links

ZPG website

Zoopla
{{Online real estate databases Real estate companies established in 2007 British real estate websites Real estate valuation Property services companies of the United Kingdom British companies established in 2007 Online real estate databases Internet properties established in 2007 Privately held companies of the United Kingdom Silver Lake (investment firm) companies