Onthehouse to take full ownership of John Edwards' Residex business

ASX-listed online real estate company Onthehouse Holdings will look to take on the established real estate data businesses following its agreement to acquire 100% of property data business Residex.

Onthehouse already owns 50% of Residex, having acquired the half-share in May 2011.

The company, which runs listings valuation website Onthehouse.com.au, and two other real estate software businesses, Console and Portplus, will acquire the remaining 50% of Residex for $3.5 million.

Residex was founded by John Edwards in 1990 to to develop house price indices for the NSW state government and has since added expanded historical residential data, suburb reports and valuation reports to its national mix of products and services.

Residex hold more than 350 million records provided to the property industry and the public dating back to 1865.

Edwards will stay on as an adviser with day-to-day operations not changing for customers.

He told the Australian Financial Review he no longer had the capital to compete with larger data companies.

Residex’s main data rivals are RP Data, owned by California-based CoreLogic, Fairfax-owned Australian Property Monitors (APM) and Louis Christopher's SQM Research.

Onthehouse will incorporate the Residex intellectual property and technology into its business.

Onthehouse managing director and CEO Michael Fredericks says the acquisition of Residex will bring it a step closer to becoming a leading real estate data company.

Onthehouse recorded a 22% year-on-year increase in revenue of $20.3 million for the 2012 financial year and net profits of $2.14 million following a loss of $1.83 million in 2011.

Most of Onthehouse’s revenue is earned from its real estate solutions businesses – Portal and Console.

It also earns  revenue from lead generation provided to mortgage brokers and real estate agents, from listing fees (a flat rate of $250) and a sponsorship arrangement with Suncorp-Metway.