Hemnet Fights Back Against Pre-Market Listings
Hemnet, Sweden’s leading real estate portal, has launched two new programs in six months to fight off-market sales and win back listings.
Why it matters: Off-market sales are an existential threat to a portal, and Hemnet's moves show how far it will go to protect its position.
Fewer homeowners are advertising on Hemnet: 82 percent of Swedish homes sold in 2025 were advertised on Hemnet, down from 89 percent a year earlier and the lowest level in seven years.
Published listings have fallen year over year for seven straight quarters, with Hemnet saying a larger share of the sales cycle now takes place on the pre-market.
The decline in published listings slowed sharply in Q2 and again in July, after Hemnet rolled out the first of its new listing products.
Hemnet introduced Sell First, Pay Later (SFPL) in February 2026 and rolled it out nationwide in April, letting a seller advertise their home and pay later when it sells.
With no upfront cost, the program increases the total number of published listings on the platform.
And most eventually pay: of the February cohort of Sell First, Pay Later listings, just under 60 percent sold within three months.
Between 40 and 45 percent of sellers now choose Sell First, Pay Later, four months after the program went nationwide in April.
Hemnet says seller NPS for the program runs 7 points higher than the alternatives.
Total published listings, paid and SFPL together, rise and fall with the season, and the summer slowdown pulls June and July down.
Hemnet launched a second program in June called Underhand, the Swedish word for an off-market sale (which in English happens to mean exactly what some U.S. brokers are accused of).
This is a private coming soon listing, with the main image blurred and the street number withheld until a buyer signs in.
Hemnet's move follows competing portal Boneo and Sweden's largest brokerage, both of which launched private coming soon networks of their own.
Underhand is free, so a home can be listed, marketed, and sold on Hemnet without Hemnet ever being paid for it.
Given that Swedish sellers typically pay Hemnet around SEK 10,000 per listing (roughly $1,000), this is a significant incentive designed to attract more listings.
More than 1,000 homes went into Underhand in the first half of July, against 8,100 published listings in the whole month, all from one broker partner.
For Hemnet, getting the listing matters more than monetizing it, which is the same play being fought out in the U.S. market.
The bottom line: For portals, a private listing is either the thing wrecking the market or the thing that saves their business, depending on which side of the Atlantic they're on.
These programs live or die on adoption, and adoption follows whoever can offer real value to consumers and agents – and Hemnet is willing to pay.
The lesson is clear: whether it's giving away listings, deferring payments, or paying the broker, a portal fighting for inventory will do whatever it takes to win.