Zillow and Redfin have reached a settlement agreement with the Federal Trade Commission and five states that resolves their antitrust lawsuit over the housing listing giants’ rental advertising partnership.
The FTC said Monday that it plans to file a stipulated order that removes restrictions on Redfin’s ability to compete against Zillow in the online rental listing market and requires Redfin to reenter the market, according to a press release from the agency.
In February 2025, Zillow paid Redfin $100 million to essentially exit the rental housing listing market for up to nine years. The FTC claimed that the arrangement enables Zillow to dominate the online rental ad market, in violation of antitrust laws, which tenants use to find apartments and property managers use to list rentals.
Zillow and Redfin’s syndication partnership will continue across Zillow, Trulia, HotPads, Rent.com, ApartmentGuide and Redfin, according to Zillow, and the companies do not admit fault or liability. What will change is that Redfin will reenter the online rental listing market next year, and both Zillow and Redfin will offer standalone multifamily advertising products in 2027 in addition to their existing partnership.
FTC demands
The settlement agreement contains other terms to facilitate Redfin’s mandated reentry into the ILS market for rental housing within six months of the order being finalized, according to the FTC’s release. To that end, “Redfin has committed to spend millions of dollars to grow its ILS business and to make substantial investments in this business for years to come.”
Redfin must hire a general manager, salespeople and a fully trained customer support team for the ILS business and advertise that business, per the FTC. For its part, Zillow cannot interfere with Redfin’s ability to recruit Zillow’s employees, and it must also provide employee information and waive any noncompete, anti-poaching or other impediments that might prevent its workers from joining Redfin.
For nine months after Redfin restarts its ILS business, Zillow must allow any ILS customer whose contract cannot be canceled within three months to renegotiate without penalty so that they can benefit from the return of a key competitor in the ILS market. Zillow is also barred from preventing or impeding any ILS customer from contracting with Redfin, according to the FTC.
Redfin faces monetary penalties if it does not restart its ILS business within the prescribed timeframe, per the FTC, and the firm must provide regular compliance updates. Zillow and Redfin must also notify the agency before entering into any syndication agreement for multifamily rental properties that restricts either party from competing for ILS customers.
A ‘significant win’
The FTC said it expects that restoring competition in the ILS market will drive down costs and spur innovation that benefits renters and property managers.
“This settlement delivers better, quicker, more certain results for both renters and property management companies than we would have been able to achieve after prevailing at trial, including firm and enforceable commitments by Redfin to relaunch its rentals advertising business,” Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said in the agency’s press release.
Zillow called the settlement a win for renters and multifamily housing providers in a Monday statement.
"Our syndication partnership with Redfin has already expanded access to multifamily listings across multiple platforms, bringing more leads and leases to property managers and more options to renters,” Michael Sherman, general manager and senior vice president of Zillow Rentals, said in the release. “This positive resolution enables us to keep our energy on innovating for renters and property managers.”
Redfin said the resolution is a “significant win” for the company and consumers, a company spokesperson told Multifamily Dive in an email.
“This agreement allows us to maintain our rental partnership with Zillow through at least 2030 while building and investing in a standalone rentals business of our own,” according to the spokesperson. “Consumers will continue to have access to the rental inventory they rely on today, while we build a stronger Redfin that can meet them at any stage.”
Partnership scrutiny
In September 2025, the FTC filed a lawsuit against Zillow and Redfin in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleging that the two companies conspired to eliminate competition in the rental listings market in violation of federal antitrust laws.
Zillow and Redfin operated two of the three leading rental listing service advertising networks in the U.S., the FTC said in its complaint, with CoStar operating the other.
In October 2025, attorneys general in Arizona, Connecticut, New York, Virginia and Washington state filed a suit with similar allegations, saying that the partnership harms property operators and renters by likely leading to higher prices and worse terms, and reduces incentives for Zillow and Redfin to compete for renters.
Judge Anthony Trenga ruled in November 2025 that the separate antitrust lawsuits should be combined. In May, Trenga denied the defendants’ request to dismiss the combined suit.
Zillow maintains that its partnership with Redfin is pro-consumer and pro-competition, and the company said in its release it’s “pleased to have found a resolution that enables its continuation.”
Since the syndication partnership launched, multifamily properties on Redfin's websites nearly quadrupled, and multifamily properties on Zillow's websites grew almost 40%, according to Zillow. During that period, properties that were previously listed on only Zillow or Redfin have received more leads.
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