British real estate portal Rightmove on Wednesday rejected a sweetened $8.1 billion takeover proposal from Australian property listing firm REA Group , saying the increased bid was still "unattractive".

"The board considered the increased proposal... and concluded that the increased proposal continues to be unattractive and materially undervalues the company and its future prospects," Rightmove said in a statement.

The most recent proposal from REA Group, which is 62% owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, consists of 341 pence in cash and 0.0422 new REA shares, giving Rightmove an implied value of 770 pence per share.

The latest bid, disclosed by REA earlier this week, came after an initial offer of 705 pence per share, or 5.6 billion pounds, and the second one of 749 pence per share, were rejected by Rightmove.

REA said in a separate statement that it was disappointed by the latest rejection and had still had no substantive engagement with Rightmove other than the rejection of its previously disclosed proposals.

"REA remains ready to engage immediately with the board of Directors of Rightmove," the Australian firm said.

The FTSE 100-listed Rightmove is the runaway market leader in the UK, and has been battling fears of increased competition over the past year or so from OnTheMarket, a rival that was bought by American property firm CoStar in 2023.

Britain's housing market is triple the size of Australia's, according to analysts, and the deal would allow REA to expedite its international growth plans.

(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Christina Fincher)