Property media on a roll

It's hardly suprising, given Asia's booming property markets (no sub-prime hangovers here), that there's action among the real estate media businesses. Earlier this week, we noted Australia's REA Group moving into the Hong Kong market with its acquisition of Square Foot for A$4.8 million.

As REA is 58% owned by News Ltd., it marks a step back into the Hong Kong publishing market by the former owner of the South China Morning Post. Bad news: a search on Wikipedia for the phrase "Dirty Digger" no longer generates the appropriate result (see the "PS" in this post). More spring cleaning over there it seems.

Meanwhile, over in India, where urban property markets remain red hot, mint reports that "99acres.com, a property portal launched by Info Edge (India) Ltd...plans to team up with Properazzi.com" from Europe. No money changing hands here, but the reports notes that the "strategic partnership will allow users of both these portals to access both real estate databases and listings for buying, selling and renting both commercial and residential properties".

Both REA and Properazzi give as a rationale for the deals a growing interest in European property from Asia and vice versa.