Stelios-Backed Estate Agent Seeks Easy £5m

Another of Britain's fast-growing online estate agents is in talks to raise millions of pounds from investors as capital pours into the sector.

Sky News understands that easyProperty, which was established with the backing of the easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Iaonnou last year, is seeking £5m to fund its expansion and additional investment in marketing.

EasyProperty, which claims to be the largest online property platform in the UK, with more than 5000 sales and rental listings, is majority-owned by its founders and management.

Its fundraising discussions are said to be at an advanced stage.

News (Other OTC: NWSAL - news) of easyProperty's latest attempt to tap investors comes just days before Purplebricks, a rival online player, unveils plans to list on the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) .

In a statement, a spokeswoman said: "We can confirm easyProperty’s CEO Rob Ellice has been undertaking a planned third round of investment talks in line with commercial plans to fund the continued expansion of the growing online estate agency business."

Mr Ellice added that there had been "strong interest from major players“ and that the share sale was oversubscribed.

"EasyProperty is currently finalising matters with an announcement to follow in the next couple of weeks," he said.

According to documents circulated among potential investors and seen by Sky News, easyProperty has an exclusive 20-year agreement with easyGroup which covers any property-related services in the UK.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) also has an option to expand the business into six other European markets, including France, Germany, Greece and Italy, while easyGroup has an option to buy a further 3.4% of the property company's shares.

"The market is highly fragmented and poorly serviced by the expensive traditional estate agency model," said a person close to the company.

The fundraising is being led by Chrystal Capital, an advisory firm.