They were operated by BytePlay, but EstateAgentToday says they “apparently failed to make the impact expected”. Already, the two sites have gone offline and are redirecting to, Findaproperty.com, one of the existing sites in AND’s Digital Property Group - making it seem like the acquisitions are more about buying the listings and not the services.

Despite the recession, house prices have been in growth for the last eight months, the Land Registry says. Even as the recession bit last year, Rightmove claimed its busiest ever month.

DMGT’s property and recruitment classifieds were “particularly” hit by the downturn last year. They were down 46 percent in its Northcliffe Media regional newspaper publisher.

Update: AND’s Digital Property Group CEO Mark Milner (in emailed announcement): “The primary reason behind the acquisition of these domains is to strengthen our already strong consumer reach and drive more home searchers to one of our core brands. In the past month, with the incorporation of Globrix.com, dothomes.co.uk and extate.co.uk into The Digital Property Group, we’ve significantly enhanced our agent offering which translates into more visitors, enquiries and instructions.”

More signs people love property sites through the downturn - both Primelocation.com and FindaProperty.co registered record daily visitor traffic levels in January (168,000 and 215,000 visitors respectively). Agent enquiries for the two sites are up 21 percent and 59 percent respectively compared with last year.