Hemnet Q2 Sales Fall 23% as “Sell First, Pay Later” Defers the Payday

Sweden’s dominant property portal Hemnet reported a 23% drop in second-quarter net sales, but the number says less about demand than it does about the calendar. The quarter was the first full one after the nationwide rollout of the portal’s “sell first, pay later” model, under which sellers pay only when the home actually sells. Listings kept coming, the invoices did not, and Q2 took the hit.

Highlights from Hemnet’s interim report for the three months to 30 June 2026 include:

• Net sales down 23.1% year-on-year to SEK 371.7m
• EBITDA down 33.9% to SEK 172.4m, an EBITDA margin of 46.4%
• Operating profit down 37.1% to SEK 149.4m
• Net income of SEK 113.3m, a net margin of 30.5%
• Published listings down 14.3% to 43,300, against a 31% decline in Q1
• Paid listings down 34.9% to 32,900
• ARPL up 12.4% to SEK 9,095, on a restated basis
• Between 40% and 45% of sellers now choosing “sell first, pay later”

Hemnet published 43,300 listings in the quarter but was paid for only 32,900 of them, a difference of 10,400 that the company attributes to deferred payment. Revenue on a “sell first, pay later” listing is recognised when the sale completes, not when the advert goes live, so a listing published in June can sit on the platform for months before it reaches the income statement. Published volumes fell 14.3%. Paid volumes fell 34.9%. Net sales landed between the two, at 23.1%.

CEO Jonas Gustafsson was explicit that this is a timing effect rather than a demand one. He said:

“The financial outcome of the second quarter reflected an expected transitional phase following the nationwide rollout of ‘Sell first, pay later’. As revenue for listings with the ‘Sell first, pay later’ model is recognised upon final sale rather than publication, Q2 absorbs the peak financial impact of this timing shift before the platform benefits from a mature pipeline of completions.”

That rollout of the model ran in phases, reaching the whole country by the start of April. Uptake has been quick, with Gustafsson putting adoption at between 40% and 45% of sellers.

Underneath the accounting, the operational trend improved. The 14.3% fall in published listings is a marked recovery from the 31% drop in Q1, and Gustafsson credited the pay-later model itself for the sequential improvement. ARPL rose 12.4% to SEK 9,095, continuing the pattern of pricing power offsetting volume that has defined Hemnet’s recent quarters. The metric was redefined in Q1 2026 and now measures revenue per paid listing rather than per published listing.

B2B sales held up, with revenue from agents, developers and advertisers at SEK 54.2m, down just 1.6%, with sales to developers and banks offsetting the volume-driven squeeze on advertising inventory. The weakness sat where the deferral lands, in revenue from property sellers, which fell 25.9% to SEK 317.5m.

The more uncomfortable number was not a financial one. Citing Statistics Sweden, Hemnet noted that 82% of properties sold in Sweden during 2025 were advertised on the portal at some point, down on previous years. “We are not satisfied with this development,” Gustafsson said, framing the drift as evidence that more homes are being sold before sellers commit to broad marketing.

Hemnet is spending real revenue timing to buy its way further up the transaction funnel. The autumn listing peak will be the first proper test of whether the pipeline converts.