easyProperty acquired by firm with backing of Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Online estate agency EasyProperty has been acquired by a firm with the backing of Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

easyProperty has been sold by the eProp Services Group PLC, parent company of The Guild and Fine & Country, and has been acquired by industry supplier firm Evolve.

The deal will complete within the next 48 hours.

Evolve - an industry name since 2007 - provides services including  photography, floor plans, viewings, EPCs, inventories, check ins and check outs and, in Scotland, its mandatory Home Reports.

Evolve chief executive David Brierley says in a statement:“We are very excited about the acquisition and see it as a huge opportunity for the industry to engage in something different.

“We are also extremely pleased to have the financial support of Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of easyJet, as a significant shareholder and owner of the easy family of brands, who has a very personal interest in seeing the brand succeed.”

Brierley says Evolve’s strategy will centre around existing licensees region-by-region to consolidate easyProperty’s existing presence in some areas. 

“We believe in a local first strategy, where we will concentrate on each area and build that until it is covered in orange before moving on to the next area and then the next” says Brierley.

This means that Evolve will at first major on easyProperty’s presence in Wales and South Yorkshire.

Brierley adds: “We have selected these areas because there is already a strong easyProperty presence there and the licensees in these regions are particularly active. Once we have covered these areas in orange, we will set our sights on expanding the brand in other untapped areas.

“As a property centric business, we are excited about our involvement with easyProperty and look forward to what the future undoubtedly holds.”