Price supervisor To Investigate SMG Price Hikes

The Swiss price supervisor has stepped in to examine whether the Swiss Marketplace Group (SMG) is engaging in abusive pricing ahead of a planned price hike in April.

The SMG-owned portal Homegate increased its basic listing price (circa $580) by 15% in 2023 and will likely introduce a further 50% price increase in April, news that was shared with users in February.

Several complaints about SMG have been made to the Swiss Competition Commission (WeKo) but no formal proceedings have emerged.

But the price supervisor may wholly or partially ban a price increase, or forcibly enact a price reduction if it finds SMG guilty of unfairly inflating prices according to the Price Supervision Act.

One real estate agent in Switzerland went public on LinkedIn to call out Homegate for sending an email that implied it would be increasing prices by almost 10 times after a presentation.

Alexandros Tyropolis, CEO at Novac Solutions, said:

"Homegate increases the prices tenfold! CHF 4,000 per month to advertise our vacant apartments!

"I almost argued with my colleague because I didn't believe her and was sure that she didn't really listen to the call where this was 'presented' to us!

"All competitors are swallowed up by the SMG. This creates a monopoly position that is now being shamelessly exploited. Isn't that a case for the Competition Commission?" [Translated from German]

SMG is a dominant force in Switzerland's real estate marketplace industry, and it is difficult for brokers to close deals without interacting with SMG products, so price hikes won't necessarily cause agents to flock to a competitor like NewHome, which achieves roughly three times less traffic than Homegate.