{"id":307680,"date":"2025-07-31T22:33:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T22:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307680\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T22:33:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T22:33:15","slug":"propertypal-ni-house-sales-website-bought-by-dublin-firm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/307680\/","title":{"rendered":"PropertyPal: NI house sales website bought by Dublin firm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Graphic of PropertyPal logo imposed on a background image of a row of terrace houses\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/07ca2b40-451e-11ef-b74c-bb483a802c97.jpg\"  width=\"976\" height=\"549\" class=\"ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">PropertyPal is the largest property website in Northern Ireland<\/p>\n<p>John Campbell<\/p>\n<p>BBC News NI economics and business editor<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">PropertyPal, Northern Ireland&#8217;s main house sales website, has been bought by a company which operates a similar business in the Republic of Ireland.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The new owner is Dublin-based Distilled which operates the Daft.ie house sales and rentals website.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Distilled&#8217;s other brands include the DoneDeal online car marketplace.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Last year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/clygx81jdn7o\" class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">PropertyPal merged with rival site Propertynews<\/a>, although the two continue to operate as separate brands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That deal came after the entrepreneur Cecil Hetherington bought into PropertyPal.<\/p>\n<p>Used Cars NI also being bought<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mr Hetherington is the founder of Used Cars NI which is also being bought by Distilled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In 2023, Distilled made a pre-tax profit of \u20ac12.2million (\u00a310.6m) on turnover of \u20ac41.4m.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Emma Marley will continue in her role as CEO of Used Cars NI. Likewise, Jordan Buchanan will continue in his role as CEO of PropertyPal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The companies will be overseen by a new Northern Ireland Board to be chaired by Cecil Hetherington.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mr Hetherington said: &#8220;We are delighted to partner with Distilled as we embark on the next stage of our growth journey. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Distilled have a deep understanding of online marketplaces and we share with them a passion for delivering the best possible experience to property and motoring buyers in our respective markets, as well as providing a rich suite of services to property professionals and motor dealers.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Eamonn Fallon, Founder and CEO of Distilled, said: &#8220;We have long admired the Used Cars NI and PropertyPal businesses and are excited to partner with them in their next phase of growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;m really impressed with the people in Used Cars NI and PropertyPal, and the quality of the products and solutions they have built for their customers.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image caption, PropertyPal is the largest property website in Northern Ireland John Campbell BBC News NI economics and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-307680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114950229430498673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}