Real Estate Sector

Zillow and Redfin settled an FTC antitrust lawsuit Monday morning, minutes before trial began in Virginia, agreeing to unwind a $100 million deal that regulators said eliminated competition in apartment listings. Under the February 2025 agreement, Zillow paid Redfin to shut down its own rental listing business, stop selling multifamily advertising, and display only Zillow-provided listings on Redfin's sites instead. The FTC alleged the arrangement effectively removed one of the three largest online apartment platforms from the market, driving up costs for landlords and narrowing choice for renters. The settlement requires Redfin to rebuild its standalone rental advertising business within six months and permits it to continue syndicating Zillow listings through at least 2030 without the anticompetitive restrictions. Zillow's partnership with Redfin will continue unchanged, and both companies will now offer competing multifamily advertising products. The FTC estimated that after Redfin exited, Zillow customers paid an average of 14.5 percent more per listing. Five state attorneys general—from Virginia, Arizona, Connecticut, New York, and Washington—joined the settlement. Zillow maintained the deal benefited renters by making more listings available across multiple platforms; since the partnership launched, multifamily properties on Redfin's sites nearly quadrupled and grew 40 percent on Zillow's.

PNB Holdings signed an energy supply agreement with First Gen on August 18 to source more than 5 megawatts of geothermal power to two Metro Manila properties—the PNB Financial Center in Pasay City and the PNB Makati Center in Makati City—enabling both sites to run on 100% renewable electricity. The power comes from First Gen's Tongonan geothermal facility in Leyte. PNB Holdings, the real estate arm of Philippine National Bank, framed the shift as part of its effort to reduce environmental impact while maintaining operational efficiency and reliability. The deal expands First Gen's existing renewable energy partnerships within the Lucio Tan Group, which already includes Philippine Airlines, Lufthansa Technik Philippines, Macroasia SATS Food Industries, Macroasia Catering Services, Grandspan Development, Absolut Distillers, and Eton Properties. First Gen operates more than 1,700 MW of generating capacity across 31 hydro, geothermal, solar, and wind facilities nationwide. The company also offers energy management services including on-site solar installations, remote monitoring systems, and energy audits to help customers optimize consumption.

Hong Kong's housing rally is losing momentum as property flippers retreat from quick-turn trades. According to scmp.com, transactions involving homes held for less than a year fell to 99 in July, down 24 percent from June and down sharply from March's 202 transactions. Secondary home prices continued rising—Centaline's leading index climbed 0.64 percent to 162.16, its highest level in three years—but the gains are now concentrated among longer-term buyers and owner-occupiers rather than speculators. The average profit per flip rose almost 10 percent in July to HK$842,000, the highest monthly average this year, suggesting that the easiest gains have been captured and flippers are pulling back rather than chasing diminishing returns. Developers are launching new projects at prices close to secondary-market levels, giving buyers a choice between resale and first-hand homes and drawing some short-term traders toward new developments. Louis Chan Wing-kit, Asia-Pacific vice-chairman of Centaline's residential division, attributed the slowdown to shifting rate expectations and buyer resistance to chasing higher prices.