Spanish Challenger Portal Kasaz Admits Defeat in Quest to Compete with Idealista and Fotocasa

The Spanish real estate portal Kasaz has ceased all operations according to a Linkedin post from the company's CEO and founder Sébastien Marion.

Founded in 2017, Kasaz was a challenger portal based in Barcelona which differentiated itself from market incumbents Idealista and Fotocasa by offering users the possibility of booking a visit online, showing exact locations and cross-checking property information.

Citing a critical lack of supply and the well-established nature of its rivals, the company was forced to shut down with its website having been offline since at least December 2022.

In his Linkedin post, Marion said that agents told him that they already had more than enough leads which meant that persuading them to list on Kasaz was never easy. Although the company ultimately tried scraping listings and even tried creating a consortium of agencies, ultimately the writing was on the wall.

Offering some thoughts on the nature of the real estate portal game for any new entrant, Marion said that in his view there are three possible ways to win:

"1. Raise tons of money. Somehow, with 50M€+ you might have a chance.
2. Create a consortium of agencies. We tried this and got positive feedback, but did not have enough roadway to pursue it further. If you can get agencies to band together, you might be able to pull it off.
3. Start from the supply. Build a kick-arse CRM, get the supply from agencies this way, and THEN worry about building a portal."

Thanking Kasaz's investors, who between them put €2.1 million into the business according to Crunchbase, Marion said that he remains "disappointed by the current state of real-estate portals in Spain" and that he hopes that someone succeeds where Kasaz failed.

Below, Sébastien Marion speaks to Online Marketplaces' founder Simon Baker at the Property Portal Watch conference in 2018.