Launch of new services

First Property Online PLC
15 June 2001

                                                                 15 June, 2001



   FIRST PROPERTY ONLINE ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCH OF THREE UNIQUE PRODUCTS

First Property Online plc (fprop) has launched three new and unique products
furthering its aim to streamline the commercial property transaction process
through its website, www.fprop.com.

The three services, which are due to go live later this summer, are:

Bespoke property loan, valuation and legal quotes

fprop has entered into business agreements with a panel of leading commercial
property lenders who will display indicative loan quotes online against
properties listed for sale on fprop.


By providing loan quotes up front buyers will:

   have better access to funding;
   have greater certainty of funding and its likely terms; and
   be able to gain a better understanding of the value of a property before
   bidding.

To assist these lenders fprop has also entered into agreements with their
valuers and solicitors who will review a property's details and provide the
lender with their preliminary views.  In addition they will display their own
fee quotes online.

This service is good news for sellers whose properties should attract more
buyers in the knowledge that funds are likely to be available to them.

                                                         more at page 3 

fprop's underwriting facility

Given the detailed property information on fprop, an understanding of the
financing terms available, easy access to valuations and fprop's own
expertise, it is now possible for the first time to offer a professional,
generic underwriting service for property sales.

This will be great news for sellers who will be able to guarantee a sale of
their property and, if the property sells at a price higher than the
underwritten value, retain a significant share of the upside.

There will be two products initially:

a guaranteed fixed purchase price in return for an underwriting premium; or

a guaranteed fixed purchase price in return for a share of the upside in the
event of the property selling through fprop or at conventional auction.



In order to launch the service fprop will set up a ring fenced underwriting
company.  Funding for this company will be raised from independent sources,
with fprop expected to make a minority investment.  The company will be
managed by fprop.

                                                       more at page 4 


Simplified and streamlined property conveyancing

To further enhance these two new products and speed up the transaction
process, fprop, in conjunction with two leading legal practices, has created
simple sets of 'Enquiries before Contract' and 'Certificates of Title'.
These have been drafted with lenders in mind and should significantly enhance
the streamlining of the transaction by reducing the quantity of work necessary
by all parties involved.
 
                                                      more at page 5


Ben Habib, Chief Executive of fprop, commented:  'I am delighted by the launch
of these three new products.  They allow fprop to streamline every aspect of
the property transaction process.  We now offer the ability to display
detailed property information online, a robust mechanism by which the value of
a property can be established, easy access to finance, simplified conveyancing
and guaranteed sales.

The products will be immensely useful to buyers, agents and sellers using our
website.  They also allow fprop to potentially earn significant revenue.'


                                    - end -



For more information please read the attached pages or contact:


Ben Habib / Saul Shanagher             Bella Pagdin / Jeremy Carey
First Property Online plc              Tavistock Communications Ltd
Tel: [phone]                     Tel: [phone]
www.fprop.com                          www.tavistock.co.uk



Notes to Editors:

 1. fprop operates a web-based business-to-business property transaction
    platform established to facilitate the buying and selling of UK commercial
    property.



 2. fprop has entered into business development agreements with Chartered
    Surveying practices and commercial property companies including:
    FPDSavills Commercial Limited; CLS Holdings plc; Delancey Estates plc;
    Donaldsons; Fletcher King plc and Moorfield Group plc.



 3. For further information, please visit the website at www.fprop.com.




               Bespoke property loan, valuation and legal quotes



A vital aspect of the property transaction process is the availability of
finance to purchase a property.  A large number of property purchasers are
dependent on bank or other lending and fprop has therefore developed a unique
service to address this need.



fprop has entered into business agreements with a panel of leading commercial
property lenders, including Bank of Scotland, Nationwide Building Society, the
United Bank of Kuwait and Dunbar Bank, to review properties for sale on the
fprop website which meet their lending criteria and provide bespoke loan
quotes for these.  Subject to the prior approval of sellers, these loan quotes
will be displayed online, so that buyers visiting the website have instant
access to and can assess the likely financing terms available for a given
property.



To assist the lenders, fprop has also entered into agreements with their
approved advisors (namely valuers and solicitors) so that, in each case, the
advisors will also review the property's details and provide the lender with
preliminary assistance in formulating its loan quote.  In addition, the
advisors will publish their fee quotes online (subject to the prior approval
of sellers) so that buyers may better understand the total costs likely to be
incurred if the loan quote is utilised.



Naturally, all loan quotes made will be subject to further due diligence, the
eventual buyer's status and contract but this unique service will allow the
buying market to take a very important step, which usually is not taken until
later in the property transaction process.  By assisting buyers in this way,
fprop is automatically assisting sellers, since the arrangement of any
requisite finance for the purchase of their property is addressed early on.



fprop has agreed with each of the lenders that it will share in any loan
arrangement fees earned from introductions through its website.  The
proportion of arrangement fees that will be due to fprop varies from lender to
lender and is dependent on the size of the loan made.  The service is
therefore a potentially valuable source of revenue for fprop.



This service is due to go live later this summer.




                         fprop's underwriting facility



Given the detailed property information on fprop, an understanding of the
financing terms available, easy access to valuations and fprop's own
expertise, fprop is able to offer a professional, generic underwriting service
for property sales. Thus sellers will be able (subject to fprop's terms and
conditions) to:



-     be guaranteed a sale of their property; and



-     retain a significant share of the upside on the sale of
      their property should it sell on the market at a higher price than the    
      price at which it has been underwritten.



In the first instance fprop will be offering two kinds of underwriting
products:



-     a guaranteed fixed purchase price, for a limited period
      of time, in return for a predetermined underwriting premium, payable to   
      fprop up front; or



-     a guaranteed fixed purchase price, for a limited period
      of time, in return for fprop sharing in the upside if the property sells  
      on the market at a price higher than the underwritten price.  In order to 
      avail themselves of this underwriting product sellers will have to commit 
      to sell their property through fprop's online bidding system, or at       
      conventional auction.



These underwriting products will continually be developed in the light of
market feedback.



In order to launch the service fprop will set up a ring fenced underwriting
company.  Funding for this company will be raised from independent sources,
with fprop expected to make a minority investment. Any investment by fprop
will be made ensuring that is retains sufficient funding for its existing
business.  The company will be managed by fprop.



This service is due to go live later this summer.





                Simplified and streamlined conveyancing



One of the biggest impediments to speedily transacting property can be the
conveyancing process itself.  In order to streamline this and the subsequent
financing of a property, fprop has, in association with Davies Arnold Cooper
and Benedek Joels (leading conveyancing solicitors), developed a simple set of
Enquiries before Contract and Certificates of Title.  These have been designed
so that the replies to enquiries can easily slot into the certificates, which
are themselves based on the Law Society's standard form but altered to cater
for different kinds of property so that they are specific and user friendly.



These documents have been drafted with lenders in mind and address nearly all,
if not all, the questions a buyer is likely to have to address with its
lender.  If the enquiries before contract are answered comprehensively and the
certificates of title properly completed by a seller's solicitor, the work
required to be done by the buyer's solicitor and lender's solicitor should be
greatly reduced.  Indeed, it may even be possible for them to rely on the
seller's solicitor's certificate itself.



There are significant benefits arising for both buyers and sellers if a
seller's solicitor properly uses fprop's standard documents including:



-     Buyers can, by reviewing one document, fully understand
      the property to which it refers.



-     Lenders and their advisors are better, and more quickly,
      able to assess a property when providing loan quotes online.



-     fprop is better placed to provide an accurate
      underwriting quote quickly.



-     Once terms have been agreed for the sale of a property
      the conveyancing process should be relatively quick and efficient.



The Enquiries before Contract and Certificates of Title can be viewed on the
website (www.fprop.com)