ImmoScout24
 | |
| Type of business | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
Type of site | Online real estate marketplace |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Berlin, Germany |
| Area served | Germany and Austria |
| Industry | Real estate |
| Parent | Scout24 |
| Website | www |
| Launched | July 1999 |
ImmoScout24, formerly ImmobilienScout24, is a German online marketplace for residential and commercial real estate. Based in Berlin, it is part of the publicly listed Scout24 group. The platform is used by property owners, real-estate professionals, tenants and buyers, and also provides services related to property valuation, financing and rental applications. It operates in Germany and Austria.[1]
ImmoScout24 is the largest online real-estate marketplace in Germany with an estimated market share of more than 70% in 2021.[2]
History
The business originated in 1997, when entrepreneur Arndt Kwiatkowski and associates developed the idea of a database for property listings. In November that year they established EIB Wohn- und Immobilien Network GmbH in Munich.[3]
The company moved to Berlin in 1998 and was renamed ImmobilienScout24 the following year.[4] The ImmobilienScout24 website went online nationwide in July 1999, followed by opening additional offices in Frankfurt, Cologne, Hamburg and Munich.[5] By 2000, the company employed around 90 people and carried about 40,000 property listings.[5]
ImmobilienScout24 reported revenue of €53 million for 2006 and more than 2.5 million monthly unique users.[6] Scout24 held 33.1% of Immobilien Scout GmbH in 2007, while Aareal Bank controlled most of the remaining shares.[7]
In September 2007, Scout24 exercised a pre-emption right to acquire Aareal Bank's 66.2-percent stake for €357 million, increasing its holding to about 99.3 percent.[8]
ImmobilienScout24 expanded into Austria in 2012 and two years later it acquired the Austrian property portal Immobilien.net, bringing together two of the country's largest online property platforms.[9]
In November 2019, Scout24 announced that the brand name ImmobilienScout24 would be shortened to ImmoScout24 as part of a wider redesign. The new branding was introduced across its websites and apps during 2020.[10]
Services and business model
ImmoScout24 provides listings for apartments, houses and commercial properties for rent and sale. Its professional customers include estate agents, housing companies, property developers and landlords, while consumers use the platform to search for rental and owner-occupied housing.[1]
ImmoScout24 increasingly generates revenue from subscriptions and additional services alongside property advertisements. Its Plus subscriptions provide additional features to people looking for housing, while estate agents and other professional customers pay for memberships and services including lead generation.[1]
The business has expanded beyond classified advertising to include paid subscriptions for property seekers, property valuations, financing-related services, products for landlords and homeowners, software for professional customers and real-estate market data.[1]
Scout24 reported an average of about 582,000 property listings on ImmoScout24 in 2025, together with 14.9 million monthly website users and 4.2 million monthly app users. Its private segment had an average of around 507,000 paying customers, while the professional segment had about 26,000 customers.[1]
In 2026, criticism was growing from property seekers and estate agents about the growing role and cost of paid services. Some rental advertisements were initially visible only to paying subscribers, while estate agents interviewed by the newspaper criticised increasing costs and the price of leads.
Scout24 said that its pricing reflected the expansion of its services and investment in its real-estate ecosystem.[11]
Market position
ImmobilienScout24 became Germany's leading online property portal during the 2000s. When the German Federal Cartel Office approved the merger of competitors Immowelt and Immonet in 2015, it described them as Germany's second- and third-largest property portals and stated that ImmobilienScout24 would remain the market leader after their combination.[12]
The authority noted that online property marketplaces are affected by network effects: property providers tend to prefer platforms with many prospective customers, while property seekers are attracted to platforms with large numbers of listings.[12]
Use in research
Data from ImmobilienScout24 listings are also used in academic research on the German housing market. The RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research maintains the RWI-GEO-RED datasets, which contain residential property advertisements from ImmobilienScout24 dating back to 2007 with prices and locations.[13]
Legal issues
In June 2025, the Berlin Regional Court ruled in a case brought by the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzbv) that Immobilien Scout GmbH had used misleading advertising for a paid SCHUFA credit check. The court found that the advertising could give prospective tenants the impression that a credit report was routinely required at the property-viewing stage.[14]
The court also ruled that the company lacked an adequate legal basis for processing some personal information entered through its digital tenant self-disclosure service. Immobilien Scout appealed the decision to the Berlin Court of Appeal.[15] As of September 2026, the appeal was still pending.[16]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Annual Report 2025 (PDF) (Report). Scout24 SE. 26 March 2026. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ Zacharakis, Zacharias (1 July 2021). "Die unheimliche Macht auf dem Wohnungsmarkt". Die Zeit (in Deutsch). Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ aus dem Moore, Nils (6 July 2001). "Nur ein kleiner Link führt zur Hauptstadt". Die Welt (in Deutsch). Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ "Immobilienscout24.de: Geoinformationssysteme in der Immobilienbranche" (in Deutsch). University of Koblenz. Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Kneuse, Beate (12 May 2000). "Online-Marktplatz macht die Wohnungssuche leichter". Computerwoche (in Deutsch). Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ Wnuck, Corinna (17 September 2007). "Telekom kauft Immobilienscout". FINANCE (in Deutsch). Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ Ihlenfeld, Jens (14 September 2007). "Telekom kauft ImmobilienScout24". Golem.de (in Deutsch). Retrieved 27 September 2026.
- ↑ "Telekom übernimmt Immobilienscout 24". Die Welt (in Deutsch). 17 September 2007. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "ImmobilienScout24 übernimmt Immobilien.net". Die Presse (in Deutsch). 28 May 2014. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "Scout24: New brand identity for ImmoScout24 and AutoScout24". Scout24. 28 November 2019. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ Rohwetter, Marcus (26 February 2026). "Findet man auf Immoscout24 überhaupt noch gut eine Wohnung?". Die Zeit (in Deutsch). Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Clearance of Merger between Immonet and Immowelt". Bundeskartellamt. 21 April 2015. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "RWI-GEO-RED: Real Estate Data". RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ Bognanni, Massimo; Hornung, Peter; Kampling, Katrin (10 September 2025). "Gericht untersagt irreführende Werbung bei Immoscout24". Tagesschau (in Deutsch). ARD. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "Irreführende Schufa-Werbung und Datenschutz: Immobilienscout24" (in Deutsch). Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband. 11 September 2025. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "Irreführende Werbung für Bonitäts-Check und mangelnder Datenschutz bei Immobilienscout24". urteile.news (in Deutsch). 1 September 2026. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
External links
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