PropertyIndex.com goes into adminstration

PropertyIndex.com has gone into administration just over a year after entering the UK property market.

The Negotiator can exclusively reveal that the pay-per-lead property portal informed staff that it had filed for administration last Thursday. All remaining employees are understood to have been made redundant by the administrator, MB Insolvency, which has advised staff to apply to the Redundancy Payments Office payment for time owing, outstanding holiday time, and statutory notice and redundancy.

Lee Bramzell, commercial director of the portal, is understood to be in the throes of preparing a management buy out for the business, which remains in operation.

Darren Richards, founder and chairman of the portal, who has invested more than £5m in the venture to date, is understood to have returned to Tenerife to live where he has other business interests. Richards is behind the online dating sute, DatingDirect.co, which had over 40,000 members within three months and which in January 2007 he sold for £30m.

A source close to the talks says: "The whole thing is about the major investor drawing a line under their investment and a new start for the business under new management."

Bramzell was unavailable for comment.

PropertyIndex.com launched as an overseas property portal in September 2007, expanding into UK residential property a year later.

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