Google to compete with REA and Domain on real estate listings

This week, Google started quietly testing real estate listings on its platform, sending the stock prices of REA Group and Domain’s new parent company Costar tumbling.

On Monday, US tech journalists revealed that Google has started adding property details, a ‘request a tour’ button, and links to contact agents. REA Group shares fell by 5.47% within a few hours, while Domain parent Costar dropped by 8.37%. Google is currently testing these listings in select markets and browsers.

This is bad news for both companies. Domain was recently sold to Costar in a deal that valued the platform at $3b. In August, when the takeover was finalised, Costar had a market cap of over A$50 billion (US$32b). It owns homes.com and apartments.com – two of the top listings sites in America. Today, the company is worth $27.5b, having fallen by 18.5% over the past six months.