NewsCorp takes bigger stake in PropTiger, after it acquires Housing

REA Group and Softbank make fresh investments of $55 million in PropTiger

NewsCorp-backed digital advertising firm for property, REA Group, has invested $50 million in PropTiger. The investment comes after PropTiger, which is NewsCorp's online real estate listing firm in India, acquired smaller rival Housing.com for an undisclosed sum. The new entity is valued at around $250 million, a person familiar with the development said.

PropTiger co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Dhruv Agarwala will take charge as the head of the combined entity, while Jason Kothari – the CEO of Housing, who was brought to fix the Rahul Yadav-founded company – will step down next month.

SoftBank – which became the biggest investor in Housing after its then vice-chairman Nikesh Arora made a $90 million bet on Yadav – would get a minority stake in the combined entity, in which it would invest an additional $5 million.

NewsCorp, which owns 61.6 per cent of REA Group, will remain the largest investor of PropTiger and is betting on India's growing economy and middle class to tap newer opportunities in the sector.

"Clearly, there is a compelling commercial purpose to the deal, but we also firmly believe in providing transparency, analysis and insight so that all Indian families, regardless of traditional background or means, will have a better understanding of the property market," said News Corp Chief Executive Robert Thomson in a statement.

PropTiger is India's largest online residential real estate brokerage firm, having completed transactions worth $1.5 billion since its founding in 2011, while Housing.com is India's most popular online platform for buying and selling homes, receiving over four million visits every month, the firm said.

India's online real estate market has seen consolidation in the last two years, with PropTiger acquiring smaller rival Makaan in 2015, and CommonFloor being merged with Quikr as investors look at faster exits and increase value of their investments.

The deal will also draw the curtains on Housing — which was founded by Yadav; a maverick who squandered the opportunity and money, and fought with investors and employees alike. Yadav was sacked by the board in 2015 and since then, Housing has tried to sustain itself, shutting its rentals arm — the experiment to host images of available rental properties which made it famous.