News Roundup: Pre-Market Polarisation, Square Yards, Vend's AI Unit & Portal Comms

In this week's news roundup, Edmund Keith and Simon Baker break down four of the biggest stories from the world of real estate portals.Zillow & Realtor.com Pre-Market PartnershipZillow and Realtor.com — long-time competitors — have announced a deal to share pre-market "preview" listings, forming a rival to the Compass-Redfin pre-market network. Unlike the Compass-Redfin arrangement (which is closed to outside brokerages), the Zillow-Realtor.com network is open to any brokerage that wants to participate, with a revenue share on offer. Ed and Simon debate whether pre-market listings are genuinely different from regular listings, who really benefits, and whether this is a stepping stone toward Zillow entering the brokerage space with its own agents.Square Yards FY2026 Results & IPO SpeculationIndian proptech platform Square Yards reported strong FY2026 results: revenue of approximately $223 million (up 48% year-on-year), gross profit of $51 million at a 23% margin, with Indian revenue growing 57% and now representing 88% of the group total. IPO speculation is growing. Ed and Simon discuss what makes Square Yards' multi-business-unit model compelling, and the long-running consolidation question in India's portal market.Vend Launches New AI UnitVend (formerly Schibsted Marketplaces, operating Finn.no and other Nordic classifieds) posted Q1 real estate revenue of $36.6 million — up 13% — with EBITDA of $17.6 million at a 48% margin. Alongside the numbers, Vend announced a new AI unit: a small, agile, independent team tasked with rapidly experimenting with fundamentally different marketplace offerings.Why Aren't Portals Talking About What They Do?Ed shares findings from a new OMP data project cataloguing five years of product innovation coverage: just five portals accounted for 32% of all coverage, Zillow alone at 12%, and 88% of the portals OMP tracks had zero coverage. He and Simon debate why so many portals stay silent about their product work, even as their market caps decline.Presented by:• Edmund Keith — https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-keith/• Simon Baker — https://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker/