A company which lists holiday homes on the Internet has been taken over by a property giant.

Holiday Lettings, which is based in Oxford, has been bought for an undisclosed sum by Rightmove, which until now has focused largely on properties for sale and to let in the UK.

The move is a major development for Holiday Lettings founders Ross Elder and Andy Firth, who have grown the business from buying the domain name on the Internet in 1999 to an operation which now has an annual turnover of more than £1m.

Managing director Mr Elder said he and Mr Firth retained a 33 per cent stake in the business, which has taken off in the past two years.

He added: "There will be no change in the management, no change in the staff but the projections for growth will be adjusted upwards.

"We have been approached several times and said 'no' but this was the option to sell to a well-known UK brand."

In the past 18 months, the company has moved offices three times due to its rapid growth and Mr Elder said the current base in St Clement's was now full and he was looking to move again, possibly to Summertown.

During that time, the number of staff has grown from eight to 23 and is expected to hit 30 in the next six months.

The holidaylettings.co.uk site now has 12,000 properties listed by by private individuals in more than 80 countries around the world and that figure is expected to grow to 22,000 within a year. Its database is growing by 1,000 properties a month as the boom in buying and renting property abroad continues to spiral.

Oxford University graduate Mr Elder, 32, and Mr Firth, 33, only went full-time with the business four years ago, after leaving careers in banking.

They will stay with the business as it continues its rapid growth in a developing market.

Rightmove is one of the UK's top 10 most visited websites, with up to 400 million hits every month. Group managing director Ed Williams said: "There's a natural fit between our two holiday lettings businesses.

"A high proportion of home buyers using the Rightmove website to buy one of our 40,000 homes overseas will want to let out their new home, so this partnership improves the services we offer."