Better home search coming to New Zealand?

Australian-based REA Group today announced it will close its New Zealand residential portal, allrealestate.co.nz, at the end of the month and direct its traffic to competitor realestate.co.nz in an alliance that attempts to provide a "more efficient and cost-competitive solution for the real estate industry."

The setup gives competitor Realestate.co.nz Ltd. "access to the more than 9.7 million unique browsers a month -- including more than 4 million in Australia alone -- who use the REA Group's international network of real estate Web sites," according to a press statement.

Browsers will be able to access realestate.co.nz from a tab on the home page of every REA Group portal and from the map of New Zealand on the REA Group Web sites.

Shaun Di Gregorio, general manager of REA Group's Emerging Business Group, in the statement said the company "decided that in the long term it doesn't make business sense for us to operate our own residential real estate site in (New Zealand)."

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