An explorer who overcame blindness to conquer the South Pole is planning to tackle Northern Ireland's turbulent property market.

Mark Pollock, 33, was a student and an international rower when he lost his sight in 1998, but he rebuilt his life and his career and is now set to spearhead the new venture.

The businessman is to take one of the Republic's top property websites, owned by the Daft Media Group, north of the border.

"After returning from the South Pole I needed a new challenge," he said. "Daft.com is a property business investing in the Northern Ireland market at a time when others are hesitating.

"With challenging economic times upon us, keeping costs to a minimum is important for all businesses, especially those in the property sector, and Daft.com offers a great online solution to agents and individuals who want to market their properties. I'm very confident of Daft's success in this market."

Within six months of going blind Mr Pollock was working again and, two years later, he completed a masters degree in business studies.

He won medals while rowing for Northern Ireland at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, completed six marathons in one week in China's Gobi Desert, raced in the world's most extreme marathon at the North Pole, developed an international speaking business and co-authored a book focused on the motivation and life choices of successful people. Earlier this year he completed a 1,000-kilometre quest to race to the South Pole.

Daft Media Group, owner of the Republic's largest property website, has expanded its business into Northern Ireland with the launch of Daft.com.

The company, established in 1997, said it was looking forward to seeing Mr Pollock spearhead the expansion of the property search website into Northern Ireland.

David Garland, sales director at Daft Media Group, said: "Over the past 10 years the Daft Media brand has built a huge online presence in Ireland, and attracts millions of people to our network of websites every month. We have worked with Mark on several projects in the past and for us he was a natural choice. His personal and business achievements are exactly what Daft Media strives to achieve and we're delighted to have him on board to champion our brand in Northern Ireland."