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Scout24 SE
Scout24 runs ImmoScout24, Germany's biggest online marketplace for finding homes and commercial property, and sells software that helps real estate agents manage their listings.
Scout24 runs ImmoScout24, the website Germans open when they want to find a flat, a house, or an office. It is the country's leading digital real estate marketplace, a bit like a giant noticeboard where millions of listings meet millions of people hunting for a place to live or work. The company also sells software to the real estate agents and property managers who post those listings.
The business has two engines. The first is the marketplace itself: agents and developers pay to list properties where renters and buyers will actually see them, and the audience is the product that makes those fees worth paying. The second is software — tools that help agents manage listings, handle enquiries, and run their day-to-day work. Ordinary people searching for a home mostly use the site for free, while the professionals who need reach and efficiency pay the bills. Its grip on the German market is the core of the story. ImmoScout24 is the place both sides of the market expect to find each other, and that two-sided habit is hard for a rival to break. The main competition comes from other property portals, including CoStar Group, the American owner of the German portal Immonet, though none matches ImmoScout24's scale in Germany. Because listings and software sales are recurring and the platform is asset-light, the business throws off plenty of cash, which it has used for dividends and share buybacks.
The company has a slightly odd history worth knowing. It began life inside Deutsche Telekom as a classified-ads business, and at one point it owned the car marketplace mobile.de alongside its property site. It sold the auto business in 2020 to focus squarely on real estate, which sharpened the story for investors. Investors should watch the German housing market itself: when transaction volumes slump and agents feel the squeeze, listing and software spending can wobble, which is the main thing that can dent this otherwise sturdy marketplace.
Saved answer · last researched 12 Nov 2026