UAE property portal Bayut buys Lamudi Middle East

UAE-based property portal Bayut has acquired Middle East Internet Group’s Lamudi for an undisclosed sum, it was announced on Tuesday.

As part of the deal, Bayut will take ownership of all Lamudi assets in the GCC, including its portals in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the UAE.

Middle East Internet Group, a Rocket Internet Company, launched Lamudi.sa as the first real estate portal in Saudi Arabia in 2012, followed by Lamudi.jo in Jordan. In 2015, Lamudi.ae was launched in the UAE.

The acquisition comes after Bayut’s parent company Emerging Markets Property Group (EMPG) closed $100m in Series D funding. The amount raised will be used to “aggressively grow” and help the site “establish itself as the most dominant real estate classifieds solution in the GCC”, a statement said.

Read: UAE site Bayut’s parent company closes $100m funding round

The group currently employs over 2,000 people across the UAE, Morocco, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Spain and Romania. Its portals generate over two million enquiries per month.

“Bayut has always focused on providing the most locally-tuned solution to the market and the intention behind this acquisition is to take that philosophy to the greater GCC region, with a focus on Saudi Arabia,” said Haider Ali Khan, CEO of Bayut.

The company intends to launch Saudi operations “very soon”, he said.

“With a network of sites operating in the region, we are also very well placed to maximise consumers’ reach and clients’ exposure across a broader region,” he added.

Property portals in the region have seen strong growth in recent years, and are now in the midst of consolidation.

On Monday, Property Finder announced that it was acquiring its UAE-based competitor JRD Group, which owns property portal Justproperty.com and Propspace, a broker CRM solution.

Michael Lahyani, founder and CEO of Property Finder, said the move will further “professionalise the real estate market”.

Read more: Dubai’s Property Finder acquires rival JRD Group