PROPEX READY FOR WEBSITE LAUNCH

By Jenny Davey

British Land, Britain’s second biggest property company, and Aberdeen Property Investors are among the high profile backers of a new website due to be launched this week which will create a “stock exchange” style internet trading system for commercial property investors.

Propex Professional will allow investors to buy and sell properties using a screen based trading system similar to that used by City brokers.

The service will be subscription based with users paying an annual fee.

Once subscribed, property owners can either advertise their properties on the site, or choose to introduce a deal to just a handful of potential buyers through coded passwords.

The site has already undergone extensive trials during the past 16 months, with 33,000 property investments recorded during that time.

Propex was the brainchild of Colin Barber, a property agent who worked at Insignia Richard Elllis, who started planning the venture in 1998.