A retail listings site that thinks it's a search engine

Site relaunch New owner, new look and new functions for Shopproperty point the way towards a comprehensive future. Adam Tinworth reports

The offices of Propex PrimePitch have that feel of temporary disorganisation that comes from a recent move. The office's giant plasma screen isn't working yet, so people are scurrying around trying to set up a demo flatscreen.

However, the move isn't the only major change the four-year-old online property firm has had to adapt to. At the beginning of the year the firm aquired a retail property website from Churston Heard. The relaunched version of the site was due to hit the web earlier this week.

Propex PrimePitch MD Paul Marples is in cheerful mood. He is full of grand visions and blue-sky ideas for the way the property web is going to develop, before cheerfully pulling the rug out from under his own feet with comments such as "we'll probably screw it up".

But the evidence seems to be against his cheerfully gloomy predictions. Six months ago, he talked to EG about turning Propex into something more akin to the sort of trading screen on every desk in the City. He's much of the way there (see trading with City Style). The firm is profitable (just), and he's hoping to drive it towards greater profitability this finacial year.

The Business of Survival
"We're no longer at the stage of asking, 'Will it work? Will we survive?'" he says, "It does work and we have survived. Now we're working on building the business."

Which brings us back to the new-look Shopproperty. Propex PrimePitch aquired the site from Churston Heard on the basis that an independant company was better placed to develop the site and sell it to other agents.

The new-look site is run by Angela Alsemgeest, and sports a pleasingly austere design. In fact, it looks somewhat like the very simple aesthetic of Google. That's a comparison Alsemgeest and Marples are keen to play on. "It's a search engine for shops," says Marples.

Agents pay £25 to list on the site, which includes full details on the property, and a GOAD extract from the area is a key selling point. Searches are free, and shopping centre owners can pay to have their centres come first in the results before the local high street.

However, this isn't the end of the firm's amnbitions for the site. Over the next few months, the team will be building a marketing platform for retail properties that is broadly similar in function to Propex, the property investment marketing system.

"I'm a firm beliver that the property industry is actually several different industries working alongside each other," says Marples. "You need different approaches to different types of property."

He is excited by the prospects. For example, there's no reason why passing your mouse over adjoining properties can't pop up a link to all the information about them.

"Having this sort of data available freely isn't something agents should be afraid of," says Marples. "It's the skills that add value to it that are important. And besides, soon enough it'll be available from the Land Registry".

http://www.shopproperty.co.uk/