High redshift Type Ia supernovae ( SNe Ia ) are likely to be gravitationally lensed by dark matter haloes of galaxies in the foreground . Since SNe Ia have very small dispersion after light curve shape and colour corrections , their brightness can be used to measure properties of the dark matter haloes via gravitational magnification . We use observations of galaxies and SNe Ia within the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey ( GOODS ) to measure the relation between galaxy luminosity and dark matter halo mass . The relation we investigate is a scaling law between velocity dispersion and galaxy luminosity in the B -band : \sigma = \sigma _ { * } ( L / L _ { * } ) ^ { \eta } , where L _ { * } = 10 ^ { 10 } h ^ { -2 } L _ { \sun } . The best-fitting values to this relation are \sigma _ { * } = 136 km s ^ { -1 } and \eta = 0.27 . We find \sigma _ { * } \la 190 km s ^ { -1 } at the 95 per cent confidence level . This method provides an independent cross-check of measurements of dark matter halo properties from galaxy–galaxy lensing studies . Our results agree with the galaxy–galaxy lensing results , but have much larger uncertainties . The GOODS sample of SNe Ia is relatively small ( we include 24 SNe ) and the results therefore depend on individual SNe Ia . We have investigated a number of potential systematic effects . Light curve fitting , which affects the inferred brightness of the SNe Ia , appears to be the most important one . Results obtained using different light curve fitting procedures differ at the 68.3 per cent confidence level .