Hemnet Takes "Sell First, Pay Later" Nationwide To Combat Listings Slump

Swedish market leader Hemnet has completed the nationwide rollout of its "sell first, pay later" product, making it available across all of Sweden from the 30th of March. The model, which defers listing fees until a sale completes, is the Swedish portal's most significant commercial change in years, and arguably its most consequential bet on reversing a bruising listings slump.

Hemnet's Q4 2025 results showed a listings volume slump of 26.4% year-on-year to just 27,300, dragging net sales down 4.4% to SEK 348.1 million. The culprit, as CEO Jonas Gustafsson has repeatedly flagged, is a "sell-first" mentality gripping Swedish homeowners, who increasingly test the pre-market before committing to a full Hemnet listing, wary of paying upfront with no guarantee of a sale.

The phased rollout began in Stockholm in February and expanded to Västra Götaland earlier this month. The portal said that Stockholm listings outperformed the rest of the country by more than 20 percentage points year-on-year in February, and roughly half of eligible sellers opted in. Citi Research called demand "reassuring," though analysts are waiting for more data before revising forecasts.

The product carries a 15% premium over a standard direct listing, so Hemnet is not giving anything away for free. Sellers must publish on Hemnet within two days of going live on their agent's website, a condition that nudges supply onto the platform earlier in the process, which is the whole point.

"We see that many sellers hesitate to go broad on the market due to uncertainty regarding the sale. By removing the financial risk and moving the payment until after the transaction is completed, we provide sellers with increased security to be visible where the buyers are. This creates a more transparent market for all parties," said Lisa Farrar, COO at Hemnet.

Hemnet still reaches around nine in ten Swedish home sellers. Whether this product can restore listing volumes, and investor confidence after a share price that fell roughly 48% in 2025, is the real test now playing out.