New property search engine seeks investment from agents

A controversial new search engine claiming to be in the later stages of development is seeking investment from estate agents, corporates and software developers.

Proptyle - which has been ‘scraping’ inventory from the existing websites of some UK agents - says it wants the investment to roll out the platform to other English speaking countries.

To avoid rights issues and clashes with individual policies such as OnTheMarket’s one-other-portal-only rule, Proptyle describes itself as “a complimentary [sic] search engine to mainstay existing portals.”

A statement from the platform says “the main difference is that information is in the public domain and therefore does not breech [sic] any copyright law or infringe on any existing portal or website. It has been strenuously and legally checked to ensure total compliance.”

The platform has been created by a collaboration between firms - v360 limited, a company providing 360-degree tours, photography and floor plan creation to property and other industries, the marketing firm HouseViz, and Proptyle Limited, an Indian company. The main contact address for the website is in Chorley, Lancashire.

The platform does not sell itself short on promotion, describing itself as “akin to Google in terms of functionality.”

One of its directors, Peter Fernandes, says: “While our competitors are killing agents by charging exorbitant fees to list their properties, we’ve turned this model on its head. So, rather than charging estate agents to list, our model raises revenue by charging a modest fee for access to a range of additional, and entirely optional, integrated property marketing services from HouseViz.”