CEO letter 2025
A year of strength and accelerated innovation
2025 was a year where Hemnet demonstrated both financial strength and a high pace of innovation. In a challenging market we stayed true to our strategy: investing in our product, improving the user experience, and taking decisive steps to drive market mobility. We have worked faster and smarter than ever before, ensuring that we not only meet the market's needs today but define them for the future.
Delivering growth in a challenging market
Hemnet’s full-year results for 2025 demonstrated strength in a challenging market with net sales increasing by 9% to SEK 1,527 million and EBITDA increasing by 7% to SEK 768 million, corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 50.3%. This growth was primarily driven by a 28% increase in the average revenue per published listing (ARPL). This strong development confirms that our product portfolio effectively meets the needs of customers who want to stand out, and that home sellers increasingly see the value of maximising their exposure on Hemnet.
The property market of 2025 was characterised by contrasts. Following a period of macroeconomic uncertainty early on in the year, we saw a gradual recovery toward the end of the period, with a total supply that began to recede and increased activity levels, particularly within the villa segment. However, a persistent ‘sell-first’ mentality, coupled with longer sales cycles and softer price development for smaller apartments, led to continued lock-in effects. This affected the listing volumes on Hemnet, resulting in a 13%* decline in new listings for the full year.
Throughout the year, we have solidified our market leadership by accelerating our innovation pace. Through new key strategic initiatives, we have strengthened Hemnet’s core value proposition, ensuring we enter 2026 with a clear focus on reducing market friction and serving as a partner throughout the entire property journey.
Accelerating our innovation pace
We started the year by launching Hemnet Max, our first new top-tier package for home sellers in five years. Max is designed for property sellers seeking maximum visibility and has, during its first ten months, generated more than double the average views per listing compared to our Premium package. This confirms that we have created a product that provides significant value, laying a strong foundation for us to scale the package over time.
During the year we have maintained a high pace in refining the user experience to ensure Hemnet remains the most engaging platform for property seekers. The property listing itself has become more inspiring through a refreshed design and a new image gallery. Simultaneously, enhancements to the map function have improved navigation, while increased exposure for 'Upcoming' listings has boosted visibility ahead of sale.
Beyond these visual updates, we introduced several high-value features such as multi-property valuation tracking, an improved agent search, and made it easier to share and explore listings together with family and friends. We have also laid a foundation for our AI driven innovation for 2026, including the introduction of conversational search, personalised start pages, and our upcoming first integration within ChatGPT.
Sell first, pay later: Unlocking market potential
At the end of the year, we presented one of our most significant product improvements to date: the option to ‘sell first, pay later.’ The launch, starting in Stockholm in February 2026, follows a successful pilot where participating offices increased listings by 4% during the test period —defying the sharp market decline—with a majority of sellers opting to pay only upon a successful sale. These results confirm the potential to lower the threshold for marketing investments on Hemnet and increase market mobility as more homes for sale are connected with Sweden’s largest propertycentric audience at an earlier stage.
Strengthening industry partnerships
Real estate agents are our most important partners, and 2025 was a year of intensified dialogue and collaboration, bringing us even closer to our customers. We significantly increased our field presence, conducting more meetings with agents than ever before to better understand their evolving needs. A key milestone in our industry relations was the introduction of new brand-level strategic partnerships. These agreements establish a clear structure for collaboration with brand owners and head offices, enabling deeper strategic alignment. By engaging directly at this level, we offer enhanced visibility and marketing tools that empower agents to build their brands and secure more mandates, ensuring the value of partnering with Hemnet is maximised throughout their organisations.
Further strengthening our position and reach
Hemnet holds a unique market position, with 96% brand awareness among home sellers and a weekly reach of nearly 2 million people. To further capitalise on and strengthen this leadership, we accelerated our marketing investments during the year, focusing on amplifying the unique value of our platform. By expanding our marketing organisation and refining our precision within SEO, SEM, and CRM, we are reaching our audience with even greater impact, affirming our role as Sweden’s natural starting point for peoples property journeys. Our strategic partnership with Hitta.se is another example of how we are expanding our reach and strengthening our visibility outside our own platforms.
Looking ahead with confidence
In a year defined by market challenges, we have not only strengthened our core business today but continued to invest in our future. We meet the new year with a stronger product portfolio, better user experience, deeper relationships with the industry, and a clear strategy to drive market mobility.
I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire Hemnet team for your dedication and hard work during this intense year, and to our customers and partners for your continued trust. We look forward to 2026 with confidence, ready to help more people find their way home.
Jonas Gustafsson, CEO, Hemnet