Trade Me deal wins okay

The Commerce Commission has granted Trade Me clearance to acquire PropertyNZ Limited, saying the deal is unlikely to substantially lessen competition in the market.

Trade Me runs the Trade Me Property website, which is the country’s largest online residential listings platform, and announced in February it had secured a conditional agreement to purchase PropertyNZ.

The latter owns and operates the homes.co.nz website that also displays listings, but its primary focus is providing property data and information to consumers.

The commission raised potential concerns about the acquisition in its June statement of unresolved issues. These included that the deal may prevent homes.co.nz from developing into a significant competitor to Trade Me, and it may also make it harder for other property platforms to set up or grow.

Anna Rawlings, chairwoman of the commission, says: “We are aware of the harm to competition that can arise when a larger firm buys a growing competitor, and we thoroughly tested whether Homes [homes.co.nz] would develop into a significant competitor. 

“However, evidence received since we issued our statement of unresolved issues has satisfied us Homes is unlikely to become a significant competitor for real estate listings.

“We are also satisfied that any benefits that Trade Me may obtain from combining its listings offering with Homes’ information/data offering would not substantially affect the ability of rival platforms to compete in the market.”

A public version of the written reasons for the decision will be made available on the commission’s case register.