The PPW Podcast

Hosted by Online Marketplaces Group

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162

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Oct 2026

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The Online Marketplaces team delve into the online real estate marketplace industry as well as the broader world of PropTech surrounding it. We bring you news, views and interviews from the industry as well as our own team's analysis of current events and trends.

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November 10, 202648 min

Winning Pitch Club and Fixing Student Housing with Roome Co-Founders Owen Redman & James Buck

In this episode of the PPW Podcast, Harvey Hancock and Simon Baker sit down with Owen Redman and James Buck, co-founders of Roome and winners of Pitch Club at PPW Madrid 2026.Chapters:00:00 Intro01:14 PPW Madrid 2026 recap02:38 Meet Roome, the Pitch Club winners04:20 Universities, students and scale05:46 How Roome makes money08:59 Referral fees from student accommodation operators10:35 Co-branding vs an independent brand14:00 Community, brands and the data flywheel15:31 Competing with Instagram and TikTok16:55 Keeping students engaged after the house hunt23:16 Why students would share their best spots27:00 How universities get Roome to new students31:10 Referral tokens and the liability trap34:45 When should a startup expand internationally?40:09 What a strategic investor brings beyond cash44:32 Roome's fundraising plans46:09 Simon's advice: focusRoome is a mobile app that helps UK university students find compatible housemates, compare and book accommodation, and connect with the city around them. It works with seven UK universities, has around 10,500 verified students signed up and more than 20,000 downloads. Students from 132 universities have also signed up on their own.Owen and James explain how the model works. Universities pay up front for the partnership and get data back on how their students live. Roome also earns referral fees of £500 to £2,000 per student from purpose-built student accommodation operators chasing full occupancy. They talk through why students prefer an independent brand to a university-badged app, the new community product built to keep students coming back, and plans to reward students for sharing local spots and referring friends.Simon asks the hard questions: how Roome competes with Instagram and TikTok for attention, how universities actually push the app, and why referral points can become a hidden liability. When the founders turn the tables, Simon makes the case for earning the right to grow before going abroad and explains what a strategic investor brings beyond cash. While they raise, his one piece of advice is: focus.Roome is currently raising. If you'd like to talk to the team, reach out to Owen and James via the links below.Our next conference is PPW Bangkok, 2 to 4 March 2027, starting with a special Startup Day on 2 March. Get discounted tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/ppw-asia-pacific-conference-bangkok-2027-tickets-2003412809644?aff=PodcastGuests:• Owen Redman, Co-Founder at Roome: https://www.linkedin.com/in/owen-redman/• James Buck, Co-Founder at Roome: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-roome/Presented by:• Harvey Hancock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvey-hancock/• Simon Baker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker/

November 6, 202645 min

News Roundup 6/11: Big Four Portal Results, PPW Madrid Debates & Zillow's $212.5m Settlement

In this week's news roundup, four of the biggest real estate portal operators report, and the story is the same everywhere: growth is coming from charging more, not from traffic or leads. Plus the disagreements hiding in the PPW Madrid transcripts, and Zillow pays $212.5m to put iBuying behind it. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:01 Realtor.com, CoStar, REA & Scout24: The Headline Numbers 06:48 What Portals Choose To Disclose 11:29 How Long Can You Keep Squeezing The Lemon? 18:40 Why No Zillow This Week? 20:23 Are Traffic Claims Worthless? 24:09 Zillow Q3 Teaser 25:22 PPW Madrid Debate: Should Portals Open Up To AI Agents? 29:11 PPW Madrid Debate: Will AI Disrupt Portals? 36:16 Quick Hits: Leboncoin, Soho & The REA Board 38:36 Zillow's $212.5m iBuying Settlement 44:04 PPW Bangkok & Wrap Realtor.com, CoStar, REA & Scout24 Realtor.com revenue rose 5% to $160m while unique users fell 8% and leads 11%. CoStar's residential business turned a profit for the first time after the Homes.com inside sales team was cut from 655 to 267. REA Group grew revenue 11% to AUD 450m as buyer enquiries fell 33%, and Scout24 grew 19.7% with Spain contributing about half of that. Ed looks at what each company chooses to highlight, and Simon asks how long portals can keep squeezing the lemon. Are Traffic Claims Worthless? Only 8% of the 4,100 traffic claims in the OMP database name an arbiter you can check them against. Simon on who actually cares about traffic numbers, and why a results release is a marketing exercise aimed at investors. PPW Madrid: The Disagreements Should portals expose their data to AI agents, or risk becoming just another data provider? And is the disruption risk from AI close to zero, as analyst Giles Thorne argued? Simon is firmly on the minimal disruption side. Harvey sits on the fence. Quick Hits & Zillow's Settlement Leboncoin revives A Vendre A Louer, Eduardo Saverin backs Soho, Tracey Fellows leaves the REA Group board with Damian Eales taking her seat, and Zillow settles a shareholder lawsuit over iBuying for $212.5m. PPW Bangkok runs from 2 to 4 March 2027, with a special Startup Day on 2 March. Get your tickets with the podcast discount . Presented by: • Edmund Keith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-keith/ • Harvey Hancock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvey-hancock/ • Simon Baker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker/

October 30, 202617 min

Live From PPW Madrid 2026: AI Results, Business Models & Best Talks

Recorded live on stage at Property Portal Watch Madrid 2026, Edmund Keith, Harvey Hancock and Simon Baker take stock of two and a half days of talks in front of more than 460 delegates from around 50 countries. Chapters: 00:00 Intro: live from the PPW Madrid 2026 stage 01:20 Key takeaways: AI starts delivering real results 03:56 Is the industry worried enough? 05:23 Are we talking enough about business models? 09:21 Favourite presentations 12:31 Has AI raised the standard of presentations? 14:59 Pitch club winner 15:53 Thanks to the sponsors and PPW Bangkok 2027 AI is starting to show real results With AI now through full product cycles, the conversation has moved on from language features to internal efficiency, user behaviour and perception models. The team also look at how fast new products now ship, from an app built during the conference to IMMOunited launching a full marketplace in Austria in under six months. Is the industry worried enough? Fear feels lower than at the last two conferences, but the panel argues the real risk is not one seismic shift. It is death by a thousand cuts, with agentic search chipping away at the core business. Business models over technology Consumer monetisation, pay-per-use buyer's agent AI, the end of above-inflation price rises flagged by Jefferies analyst Giles Thorne, the move towards end-to-end transaction platforms, and why mortgage businesses that buy portals tend to do better than portals that move into mortgages. Favourite talks Shout-outs for Sarah Wood of realestate.co.nz on brand, marketing and culture, Tilen Pigac's opening poem, Malcolm Myers' scene-setting keynote and Lukas Rose of ProperBird. Plus a theory: has AI raised the standard of conference presentations? Pitch club and what's next The team congratulate pitch club winner Rumi, thank the sponsors and announce PPW Bangkok on 2 to 4 March 2027 at the Carlton Hotel. Presented by: • Edmund Keith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-keith/ • Harvey Hancock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvey-hancock/ • Simon Baker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker/

October 23, 202647 min

News Roundup 23/10/26: Hemnet Q3, Compass Sues CRMLS & Zillow Comes to Claude

In our last news roundup before PPW Madrid, Hemnet's shares jump despite falling numbers, Compass sues California's biggest MLS, Zillow launches inside Claude, HouseCanary adds a brokerage to Google's listings program while in Chapter 11, and Jitty tests paid reports for home buyers. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:20 Hemnet Q3: Numbers Down, Shares Up 03:09 The Inside Game And The Outside Game 07:48 Compass Sues CRMLS 10:42 MLS vs Broker: Who Controls The Listings? 13:36 Zillow Launches A Claude Integration 14:51 Ed Tests Zillow In Claude 17:41 Simon's Live Test 23:40 Can A Portal Be A Trusted Companion? 28:08 PPW Madrid 2026 29:37 HouseCanary, Google Listings And Side 32:41 Who Is Paying Who? 36:10 Is HouseCanary A Threat To Portals? 38:10 Jitty Tests Paid Home Buyer Reports 43:10 Will Buyers Pay For Property Reports? 47:37 Wrap Hemnet Q3: Numbers Down, Shares Up Hemnet's last results before its switch to a sell now, pay later model show paid listings down 30%, published listings down 13% and operating profit down around 30% year on year. Yet it beat consensus on its profit measures and the share price jumped around 10%. Simon explains the two games every listed portal plays: the internal game of operations and metrics, and the external game of managing market expectations. Compass Sues CRMLS Compass is suing CRMLS, the second largest MLS in the US, over rules that fine agents up to $2,500 per violation for marketing a home publicly outside the MLS, even when the seller instructed it. Compass says it will pay any fines its agents receive. Simon boils it down: this is an arm wrestle over who controls the listings, and so who holds the power. Zillow Comes To Claude Zillow's new Claude integration brings listings, maps, home value estimates and affordability tools into the conversation, using Zillow's own MLS-approved listing display. Ed reran the difficult queries from his January test of portal integrations in ChatGPT and found this one adds real value, admitting what Zillow's filters can't do and flagging likely busts. Simon tests it live, finds the connection step clunky, and argues that AI will be a companion in the home search, not a replacement for it, with trust as the portal's biggest asset. HouseCanary And Google Listings A year after Google started showing real estate listings in search via HouseCanary, the brokerage Side has joined the program, adding listings from its 600 partners in 19 states. HouseCanary is meanwhile operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Simon thinks it is playing an arbitrage game between listing sources and Google, and doubts the model is defensible. Jitty Tests Paid Reports AI portal Jitty is piloting £5.99 home buyer reports covering comparable sales, property condition from photo and floor plan analysis, planning history and likely extra costs. Simon explains why, in his experience, consumers rarely pay for property reports in volume, and why one-off sales make the consumer hard to monetise. The PPW Conference is in Madrid from 28 to 30 October. Get your tickets at ppweurope.com. Presented by: • Edmund Keith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-keith/ • Harvey Hancock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvey-hancock/ • Simon Baker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker/

October 16, 202643 min

News Roundup 16/10/26: Hemnet's 17x Price Hike, REA Shorted & PPW Madrid Countdown

In this week's news roundup, we dig into Hemnet's 16.8x price rise over a decade and what it has cost the Swedish portal, ask whether vendor-paid advertising is really the advantage portals think it is, and look at why a Sydney hedge fund is shorting REA Group. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:31 Hemnet's Tough Year 03:23 Boiling The Frog: Hemnet's 16.8x Price Rise 05:04 Booli Overtakes Hemnet On Similarweb 11:29 How Hemnet Wins Back Hearts And Minds 14:21 Is Vendor-Paid Advertising Really An Advantage? 21:23 "If You're Strong, You Have To Be Nice" 24:40 Finding The Real Buyers 27:42 When Scout24 Doubled Its Prices Overnight 31:12 Hedge Fund Shorts REA Group 36:30 Should REA Hold Back On Price Rises In A Downturn? 42:00 PPW Madrid 2026 Boiling The Frog: Hemnet's Price Rises Hemnet's share price is down around 70% in a year, with a paused buyback, four directors leaving, an overhaul of its revenue model and redundancies. Ed's analysis on onlinemarketplaces.com finds Hemnet raised its price per listing 16.8x between 2015 and 2025, far ahead of Rightmove's price per advertiser and of house prices in Sweden or the UK. Meanwhile bank-owned aggregator Booli now beats Hemnet on Similarweb, with the caveat that Similarweb does not count app traffic, which makes up 70 to 75% of Hemnet's visits. Simon explains why every intermediary in a property deal is sharing the same pie, and what Hemnet needs to do to win back agents' hearts and minds. Is Vendor-Paid Advertising Really An Advantage? Ed tests a theory: agents grumble but absorb price rises because they need the leading portal to win instructions, while sellers have a breaking point. Simon explains how, once vendor-paid fees become a meaningful number, rival agents can pitch "list with me and save $10,000" by skipping the big portals, as some Australian agencies already do. Harvey asks how a listed portal balances shareholder demands with keeping agents on side, and Simon tells the story of Scout24 doubling its prices overnight around 2007, losing a quarter of its customers and winning them back over three months. Hedge Fund Shorts REA Group The Australian Financial Review reports that Sydney-based Bristlemoon Capital is shorting REA Group, betting the portal has underestimated the impact of a slowing Australian housing market. Simon explains why per-listing upgrade revenue leaves portals exposed to listing volumes and time on market, and what the downturn conversation in the REA boardroom looks like. The PPW Conference is in Madrid from 28 to 30 October, with Startup Day on 27 October. Get your tickets at ppweurope.com. Presented by: • Edmund Keith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-keith/ • Harvey Hancock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvey-hancock/ • Simon Baker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker/

October 13, 202652 min

Why Phone Leads Still Win in the Age of AI with Ryan Gallagher, Founder & CEO at iovox

Ryan Gallagher, Founder & CEO of iovox, joins Edmund Keith and Simon Baker to talk about what communications data really says about marketplace leads. He explains why swapping voicemail for AI agents took lead capture from 9% to 90%, why call volumes are rising rather than falling, and why a phone call is still the strongest signal of buyer intent. Also covered: the US Cloud Act and data sovereignty, why software is no longer a moat, and how emotion detection is changing call analysis. 00:00 Intro 01:42 What iovox does and who it works with 02:54 Only 47% of phone leads get answered: the stats that surprise 04:34 How fast AI calling has arrived 06:15 Data privacy, the US Cloud Act and the EU 13:26 Why iovox hosts and trains its own models 16:25 Software is dead: what counts as a moat now 18:59 Can AI replicate iovox? 22:21 AI agents for bookings and replacing voicemail 24:51 Whose problem is a missed lead: the portal or the agent? 29:14 When AI talks to AI 29:42 Are phone calls dying? Call volumes are up 25 to 30% 31:50 How phone leads convert versus email and text 33:07 LLMs and the consideration phase 40:01 Emotion detection versus sentiment analysis 42:57 Will AI replace salespeople? 43:40 A decade of iovox and what comes next Guest: • Ryan Gallagher, Founder & CEO at iovox: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryangllghr/ Presented by: • Edmund Keith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-keith/ • Simon Baker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker/

October 9, 202644 min

News Roundup 09/10/26: AI-first Portals, M&A Updates and Product Talk

In this week's news roundup, three AI-first portals launch in the UK and Australia, 360Latam and SeLoger both buy niche players, and we ask whether the industry talks too much about product. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 02:03 The Rise Of AI-First Portals 04:31 How Do You Market An AI Portal To Wary Consumers? 11:50 What Do The New Challenger Portals Really Want? 18:13 360Latam Acquires Casas y Más 19:59 SeLoger Acquires Ouest-France Immo 21:04 Why Big Portals Are Buying Niche Players 24:06 PPW Madrid 2026 & Startup Day 28:26 Do Portals Talk Too Much About Product? 35:26 Do We Actually Use Real Estate Portals? 39:26 Speed To Market For Renters 42:01 Wrap The Rise Of AI-First Portals Three AI-first portals have launched in the past month. In the UK there's Mal McCallion's MyPorta, which says it has more properties than Rightmove and is free to list forever. In Australia there's SohoAI, which is free to list and has virtual staging, a chat interface, mortgage calculations and market charts built in. There's also a new buyer-focused AI platform for commercial property. With public feeling towards AI turning cautious, Harvey asks how you market a portal built on the technology consumers are wary of. Simon asks what the business model is and what problem is being solved. He thinks incumbents will cherry-pick the best AI features, and explains why buying a home is an emotional search rather than a transactional one. Challenger Portals: Shrinking Moats Or Lower Barriers? SohoAI founder Jonathan Lui says AI has already shrunk the moats around the biggest portals. Ed disagrees: the moat is brand and traffic, and what AI has shrunk is the barrier to entry. Simon goes through the three moats (listings, brand and audience, billing relationships) and explains why only the listings moat has really weakened. M&A: 360Latam And SeLoger Go Niche 360Latam, owner of InfoCasas, has acquired Uruguayan platform Casas y Más, which built a strong audience on social media alongside its portal. In France, SeLoger has bought Ouest-France Immo, the regional market leader in western France, with 1.3 million monthly unique visitors and 3.5 million leads a year. Simon explains why portals are really a series of local games, and why small add-on acquisitions are cheap right now. Do We Talk Too Much About Product? Ed tests a theory from his PPW Madrid presentation: of all the levers a portal can pull, the industry over-indexes on product, even though no challenger has ever overtaken an incumbent on product alone. Simon and Harvey explain why product dominates the conversation. Then the team admits how often they actually use portals themselves, and why, in a tight rental market like Madrid, speed to market matters more than bells and whistles. The PPW Conference is in Madrid from 28 to 30 October, with Startup Day on 27 October. Get your tickets at ppweurope.com. Presented by: • Edmund Keith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-keith/ • Harvey Hancock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvey-hancock/ • Simon Baker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker/

October 2, 202645 min

News Roundup 02/10/26: Zillow In Court, REA Backs Distilled, Hemnet's Free Tier & Rightmove Activist

In this week's news roundup, Ed, Harvey and Simon cover four big stories from four big companies: Zillow's latest legal setback, REA Group's return to Europe, Hemnet's free-to-list pivot and an activist investor at Rightmove. This episode is brought to you by Fusion 4 Ventures. Zillow loses its dismissal bid A judge has rejected Zillow's motion to dismiss the Dupuis class action, brought on behalf of agents in its Preferred and Flex programmes, so the case now moves into discovery. The suit alleges Zillow pressured agents to sell Zillow Home Loans products at the risk of being dropped from its programmes. REA Group buys into Distilled REA Group has agreed to take a 35% stake in Distilled, owner of Daft.ie and PropertyPal. Simon explains why a minority stake in a vendor-paid advertising market makes sense, and what it could mean for Hemnet. Plus: Daft's Marcus Hartwall moves to Hemnet as chief commercial officer. Hemnet goes free to list With challenger Booli showing far more listings, Hemnet is introducing free-to-list tiers and aggregating listings from agency websites to reach full market coverage. The team discuss Hemnet's average revenue per listing and Similarweb data showing Booli now ahead on traffic. An activist at Rightmove US activist investor Sachem Head has taken a 6% stake in Rightmove, whose shares have fallen around 40% in the last year. PPW Europe 2026 is less than a month away. Get your tickets: www.ppweurope.com Presented by: • Edmund Keith: LinkedIn • Harvey Hancock: LinkedIn • Simon Baker: LinkedIn

September 29, 202651 min

Are Portals Becoming Someone Else’s Lunch?, with Malcolm Myers

Harvey Hancock hosts Simon Baker and Malcolm Myers for a wide-ranging conversation about portals, AI, agents, M&A and brokerage, ahead of Malcolm's keynote presentation at the upcoming PPW Conference in Madrid. 0:00 Intros and PPW teasers 02:25 the four challenges facing property portals 03:50 business models problems vs perception problems 13:09 Relevance as the lifeblood 16:55 Brokerage and Rollups 26:47 Consolidation in Europe? 31:47 where should portal budgets go next? 34:58 lead quality and operational efficiency 36:07 Malcolm’s case for AI enablement and automated back offices 44:53 unique listings and content as differentiators 49:30 Closing remarks

September 25, 202642 min

News Roundup 25/09/26: Idealista Signs Orpi In France, Compass See It First & Portal Shake-Up

In this week's news roundup, Idealista lands its first big agency partner in France, Compass puts serious marketing money behind its exclusive listings, and a wave of leadership changes sweeps through the portal world. Chapters: 00:00 Intro 04:09 Idealista Signs Orpi In France 15:43 Compass Launches See It First 27:27 Portal Leadership Shake-Up 37:13 Do Portal Leaders Need Portal Experience? Idealista Signs Orpi In France Barely a month after hiring a former Leboncoin executive to run France, Idealista has signed its first major partnership there with Orpi, a cooperative of 1,250 agencies. Simon Baker explains how Idealista built its position in Portugal and Italy, how long it could take to start charging French agents, and why smaller, lower funded players should be the most worried. Compass Launches See It First Compass has rebuilt its website and launched See It First, a brand for listings marketed only on Compass, backed by millions of dollars of consumer advertising. The team looks at the thin margins behind Compass's $11bn in revenue, why unique listings are the only real moat, and who should be worried: smaller brokerages first, then Zillow, Homes.com and Realtor.com. Portal Leadership Shake-Up A new president at Homes.com, a new head of real estate at Swiss Marketplace Group, a new MD at ImmoScout24, Rich Hayes leaving Zoopla, board changes at Rightmove and a new CEO at Boligportal, all in about ten days. Is it panic, fatigue or coincidence? Plus why the Homes.com search took two years, and whether you need to have run a portal to run one. Presented by: • Edmund Keith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-keith/ • Harvey Hancock: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvey-hancock/ • Simon Baker: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker/