Property portal The House Shop is to raise £2.5m to grow its business.

The site re-launched this year after being The Little House Company, which was originally a private sellers’ site.

As The House Shop, it allowed both agents and private sellers and landlords to advertise.

Private sellers pay £34.99 to list on the site, while it is free for agents.

Sebastien Goldenberg and Nick Marr, who are behind the site, say it has the potential to be the Airbnb of the property world.

Marr said that since relaunch in March, the site has been working hard to attract small estate agents with fewer than 15 listings. He said many could not afford to list on the big portals.

There has also been marketing to bring more private landlords and sellers on board and also to grow niche listings such as accessible homes.

Marr said: “Unlike the online estate agent sector we don’t advertise with the main portals. Buyers and tenants are beginning to understand our message that they may be missing out if they purely rely on them to find a property.”

He also said that two YouGov polls commissioned by The House Shop had shown that users would prefer a “whole market” portal, and that a growing number of people would like to sell directly.

He added: “We are raising £2.5m to accelerate infrastructure roll-out and marketing and to employ more people and to help deliver our messages.

“We are in talks with several people / organisations who understand the gap in the market that we are filling.”