Scout24 ETR: G24 reported accelerating earnings growth in the third quarter as subscription demand, AI-related product adoption and improving profitability in Spain helped offset a more difficult German housing-market backdrop.
Total revenue rose 19.7% year over year in the quarter, including 10.1% organic growth, while ordinary operating EBITDA increased 15.9%. The company’s reported ordinary operating EBITDA margin improved to 60.9% from 60.2% in the second quarter. Adjusted earnings per share rose 21.5% to €1.09, supported by operating performance and a reduced share count following buybacks.
Scout24 narrowed its full-year revenue outlook to growth of about 18%, compared with its prior range of 16% to 18%. It maintained its margin guidance for an ordinary operating EBITDA margin of up to 61%, or up to 64% on an organic basis.
Subscriptions Drive Broad-Based Growth
Chief Executive Officer Ralf Weitz said the company maintained organic revenue momentum across both professional and private customer subscriptions. German professional subscription revenue increased 11.5% in the third quarter, supported by customer additions, pricing and ImmoPoints usage.
The average German professional customer base increased by more than 900 from a year earlier to almost 25,000 in the quarter. Customer growth reached 3.9%, the highest rate reported by the company so far this year. Professional ARPU growth moderated to 7.4%, which Chief Financial Officer Martin Mildner attributed partly to lower activity among project developers and new-home builders, as well as a mix effect from newly acquired customers starting at lower average revenue levels.
Weitz said the company sees opportunities to increase ARPU in 2027 through customer upgrades, expanded ImmoPoints offerings and further product adoption. Around 20,000 professional customers had migrated to Scout24’s new membership models by the end of September.
Private-segment revenue increased 10.5%, its strongest growth of the year, while subscription revenue rose 10.4%. The average private subscriber base reached 534,000, up about 16,000 from the second quarter. ARPU grew 8.9% as more subscribers chose higher-value packages.
About 40% of private subscribers now use the Pro or Unlimited offerings, and the Unlimited tier’s share increased by 4 percentage points sequentially. Weitz said users of the Unlimited AI Application Assistant receive four times as many viewing invitations, while the assistant accounted for 5% of total rental leads.
The company expects the typical seasonal decline in subscriber numbers during the fourth quarter, but said the average base should remain above the roughly 504,000 reported in the prior-year fourth quarter. Weitz said Scout24 was targeting double-digit private revenue growth for the full year.
Housing Market Conditions Extend Transaction Times
Scout24 said higher mortgage rates and Germany’s challenging labor market have made financing more difficult for homebuyers. Transactions are taking longer to complete, and the gap between asking prices and achieved prices is widening as asking prices continue to rise while transaction prices remain broadly flat year over year.
Buyer inquiries declined slightly but remained above the lows reached in 2023, according to Weitz. Rental demand stayed strong, with affordable housing remaining scarce and rental inquiries increasing in recent months.
Total listings increased 19.7% year over year. Scout24 attributed the increase to longer sales-market marketing periods and added rental supply through offerings such as Coming Soon listings and its Tenant Network, which the company said help bring homes previously in the “grey market” onto its platform.
Monthly ImmoScout24 users remained broadly stable at around 19 million, while search requests increased 3.5% year over year. Registered accounts rose 17% and saved searches increased 5%. Leads increased 8% from the second quarter, driven by rental demand.
AI Products and ImmoPoints Gain Usage
Weitz said Scout24 is executing its “Agentic OS” strategy, which centers on AI-supported services for seekers and real-estate professionals. The company recorded more than 10 million AI-supported searches during the third quarter, 26 times the level of a year earlier. AI-supported searches represented 2.5% of total searches in August, compared with 0.1% a year earlier.
The company also said it ranked first among tracked peers in visibility on ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. Weitz emphasized that external AI traffic remains low but said Scout24 intends to be “agent-friendly” and is working to enable external AI agents to access its properties and services.
Propstack, Scout24’s CRM business for real-estate agents, posted revenue growth of 25% in the third quarter, accelerating from 18% in the first quarter. The company is adding its Proppi AI service, which prepares replies, organizes tasks and converts meeting notes into follow-up actions.
ImmoPoints revenue reached €3.4 million in September, up 37% year over year. More than 10,000 customers within new memberships used ImmoPoints, which can be spent on services including listing visibility, valuations and AI-powered marketing. About 1,600 professional customers bought ImmoPoints outside their membership contracts in September, up around 58% from a year earlier.
Spain Integration Supports Margin Improvement
Scout24 said the integration of Fotocasa in Spain is progressing ahead of plan. The Spanish professional customer base grew 2.4% from June, while September traffic rose 12% year over year and leads increased 14% to a record level.
Spain’s ordinary operating EBITDA margin reached 34.2%, including transitional service agreement costs. Mildner said the company continues to see work ahead but described the early operational and profitability gains as validation of its acquisition integration approach.
For 2026, Scout24 now expects Spain to contribute 7 to 8 percentage points of group revenue growth, compared with its previous expectation of 6 to 7 percentage points.
Cash Flow, Buybacks and Costs
Free cash flow totaled €151.1 million for the first nine months, down 25.3% from a year earlier. The company said the result included €50.7 million of special cash outflows, mainly related to long-term incentive plan settlements and the acquisition of the remaining 25% interest in Sprengnetter. Excluding those items, free cash flow would have been €201.8 million, compared with €176 million in the prior-year period.
Scout24 repurchased more than 4 million shares for €292 million in the first nine months at an average price of €72.78. It permanently retired 3 million shares, reducing share capital from 75 million shares at the beginning of the year to 72 million. Net leverage increased to 1.23 times at the end of the third quarter from 0.99 times at the end of the second quarter.
Total operating costs were €84.5 million in the third quarter, only €1.1 million above the second quarter. Personnel costs declined sequentially to €31.8 million, while marketing spending fell to €15.8 million. Mildner said organizational changes, automation and AI adoption contributed to a 7% organic year-over-year decline in personnel costs.
About Scout24 (ETR:G24)
Scout24 SE operates ImmoScout24, a digital platform for the residential and commercial real estate sectors in Germany and internationally. The company offers Realtor Lead Engine and Immoverkauf24 products for selling real estate; Mortgage Lead Engine, a mortgage financing product under the pay-per-lead model; mortgage and real estate financing advisory services; FLOWFACT and Propstack, which are CRM software solutions for real estate agents; and TenantPlus that provides rental properties. In addition, it offers BuyerPlus for users looking to buy properties; LivingPlus provides coverage and support for tenant protection; and LettingPlus, a cloud-based software solution.
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