Immobiliare.it Agrees €22.5 Million Pisos.com Deal

Immobiliare.it has agreed to acquire Pisos.com for €22.5 million (USD 24.5 million) with the Italian portal now set to double down in Spain.

Pisos.com, the third-place player in the Spanish market behind Idealista and the Adevinta-owned fotocasa.com, is owned by Grupo Vocento. Immobiliare will pay Vocento all cash for the business.

Silvio Pagliani, CEO and co-founder of Immobiliare, said:

"We are delighted to be collaborating with the Pisos.com team. This acquisition strengthens our presence in Spain, where we already have a presence with Indomio.es and Enalquiler.com, and allows us to offer tailored solutions for an evolving market, better supporting both home seekers and real estate agencies.

"Our technological investments will continue to grow, and with a platform in four European countries, including Spain, we will be able to take full advantage of the opportunities in the coming years."

Immobiliare is in a neck-and-neck race for market leadership in its native Italy—against Idealista. Now the Italian portal operator is taking the battle to Idealista, a clear market leader in its native Spain and neighbouring Portugal.

According to ABC (also owned by Vocento), Pisos.com is trusted by more than 8,500 real estate agencies and has an inventory of more than 450,000 published listings.

But Vocento is focused on strengthening the Group's position in key areas: journalism, data, technology, and the development of new businesses. Fotocasa.com no longer a strategic priority for the Group, with Vocento's new strategic priority committing more resource to Sumauto, an automotive-focused venture encompcompassing AutoScout24, Autocasion.com, RentingCoches.com.

On the surface, Immobiliare's play on the surface is a show of great resilience, standing up against the powerful Idealista. The company already has a limited presence in the Spanish market; it owns Indomio.es and Enalquiler.com.

However, taking market share in Spain will be no easy play for a distant third-place player up against one of the most dominant market leaders in Europe.

Another layer of intrigue comes in the form of the current number two portal fotocasa.com, which is owned by Adevinta—a conglomerate of European marketplaces that is being broken up in earnest since a multi-billion takeover last year.

Immobiliare could well eye up a "for sale" fotocasa.com once it has established a foothold in Spain, uniting the number two and three players to take on Idealista, which is unlikely to enter a bidding war. A consolidated European marketplace operator with a strong presence in Spain and Italy would make Immobiliare an attractive acquisition target further down the line.