The chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp says he is not worried about a cashed-up rival buying into the lucrative Australian property classifieds market because REA Group has a key advantage: news.com.au.

News Corp has a controlling stake in $32 billion REA, which owns realestate.com.au and dominates the Australian property sales market. But REA shares fell more than 10 per cent on February 21 after US real estate giant CoStar bought 16.9 per cent of second-placed sales site Domain. Domain, valued at $2.8 billion, is 60 per cent owned by media company Nine Entertainment, publisher of The Australian Financial Review.