Australia's Rea Group, the digital property business majority-owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, has tabled a third offer for the UK online property portal Rightmove, valuing the London-listed company at about £6.1 billion, or 770p per share.

Melbourne-based Rea’s two previous offers for Rightmove earlier this month were rejected – but the property website’s board said it will “carefully consider the increased proposal, together with its financial advisers”.

Rea, meanwhile, which says it operates Australia’s “leading residential and commercial property websites – realestate.com.au and realcommercial.com.au – said it was “genuinely disappointed at the lack of engagement” by the board of Rightmove.

Rightmove’s chair Andrew Fisher said: “Rightmove is an exceptional company with a very clear strategy, a consistent track record of delivery and a strong management team. The board is confident in the company’s short and long-term prospects and sees a long runway for continued shareholder value creation.

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“Based on the implied value and structure of Rea’s first and second indicative non-binding proposals, we considered these proposals to be uncertain, highly opportunistic and unattractive. Accordingly, the board unanimously rejected them.

“The board will continue to act on behalf of our shareholders and respond to the most recent proposal in due course.”

Rightmove, which acts as a “shop window” for estate agents to list properties for sale, has dominated the buying and selling market in the UK and challenged the traditional high street estate agency model in recent years.

Commenting on its third offer for Rightmove, Owen Wilson, Rea’s chief executive, said: “We are genuinely disappointed at the lack of engagement by Rightmove’s board. We live in a world of intensifying competition and this proposed transaction would bring together two highly complementary digital property businesses for investment and growth.”

At Hargreaves Lansdown, Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, said that Rea had shown determination to gain a big foothold in the UK property search market by significantly upping its takeover bid for Rightmove. “The group is frustrated by a lack of engagement from Rightmove which has clearly been holding out for a much higher offer after the first highly opportunistic bid,” she noted.

“It’s now been increased by 9.2% which represents almost a 40% premium to its share price at the end of August. While this will certainly be very encouraging for some investors, who had seen the value of their holdings plummet from highs reached in January 2022, there is likely to be a push among others to hold out for an even better deal.”

Russ Mould, meanwhile, AJ Bell investment director, stated: “If you want to own the market leader you must pay a premium price and that’s exactly the situation with Rightmove.

“Rupert Murdoch’s REA Group is back for the third time with a higher bid for the UK property portal, but it still doesn’t look like the price is generous enough. Shareholders are more likely to sit up and show interest if the bid starts with an eight, not a seven – and so the latest bid of 770p is a step in the right direction but unlikely to be enough.

“This looks like a serious pursuit, albeit one where the bidder’s idea of fair value still doesn’t align with shareholders’ expectations.”

But he added: “There is only so much of a song and dance you can do with takeovers. Rea really needs to show its best and final offer. If it’s still not enough to win over Rightmove’s board and shareholders, the bidder needs to walk away and think about different ways to expand its empire.”

If there is a takeover, it would make Rightmove the latest of London’s blue-chip companies to disappear from the FTSE 100 index.

REA has until 5pm on September 30 to make a firm offer or walk away under City Takeover Panel rules.