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Did Hemnet make a mistake by going after charging for website listing

Wednesday, 10 April 2013
When the Swedish biggest real estate site decided to ask real estate and home dealers to pay for listing the site on its database, many market analysts just watched and muted. Now it looks like the company made a mistake and bite more that it can chew.

One of such evidence is that its house seems to have started crumbling immediately Pasha Sabouri, president of the Swedish Real estate organisation Fastighetsmäklarförbundet (FMF) and who is also CEO of Notar decided to leaves his position in Hemnet's board. He does it in protest against the decision the company took to start charging for ads listing on its real estate site, according to media reports.

"This is the wrong way to go for Hemnet, the decision will open the door to competing sites, "he says.

Hemnet is owned by the two largest real estate broker chains in Sweden, Fastighetsbyrån and Svensk Fastighetsförmedling as well as Mäklarsamfundet (Real Estate Association) and FMF.

Once the decision to charge for ads was made the board of Hemnets, Sabouri Pasha and his colleague at the FMF voted no.
from the strategic standpoint, Sabouri Pasha believe that in a few years time, this decision will be looked upon to analyse as one of the key factors that made Hemnet to loose its dominance in the market.

Although Skr600 for each ad to be paid by the seller seems small, Pasha Sabouri thinks that the decision could have major consequences.
"Many brokers will put this into their fees and we are already struggling with the incredible shrinking margins. I think many will try to sell more items directly from their speculator records or from their own website, than to put the advert on Hemnet, "he says.

Hemnet has so far been the obvious choice for many property speculators, who want to quickly expose their products to the housing market. Now Pasha Sabouri sees competitors such as Booli and blocket to bite more into that market share.
by Scancomark.com Team

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