Mark Stücklin
A planned merger between two major property portals collapsed after months of regulatory wrangling, raising fresh questions about political interference and over-regulation in Europe’s digital economy.
Spain’s leading property portal Idealista recently called off its planned acquisition of Kyero, the popular site for international second-home buyers, after months of wrangling with Spain’s competition authority.
The purchase of Kyero — a niche but respected platform serving foreign buyers in Spain, France, Italy and Portugal — was first announced in December 2024. By September 2025, however, Idealista’s board threw in the towel. Negotiations with Spain’s Competition and Markets Commission (CNMC) had dragged on for months, with the regulator demanding conditions that Idealista said went “beyond the scope of the transaction” and would have prevented it from operating normally.
In the end, Idealista concluded the CNMC’s terms made the deal unfeasible. The company even hinted that the watchdog might have been using the Kyero acquisition as a pretext to meddle in its wider business strategy — an extraordinary claim, but not hard to believe given the current political climate.
A market that hardly needs saving
What business is it of the CNMC to interfere in a deal between two European property portals? The online real-estate sector remains fiercely competitive, fragmented, and full of choice for consumers — hardly a monopoly. Buyers in Spain can browse Idealista, Fotocasa, Kyero, ThinkSpain, Pisos.com, Habitaclia, and plenty more.
Spain’s bureaucrats, marching to the tune of politicians, appear intent on telling Idealista how to run its business. This is the same government that rails against private property data and is now proposing its own “public and reliable” housing database to counter what Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calls the “dubious reliability” of private portals. Translation: the government doesn’t like the data when it contradicts its political narrative on rent controls and the 2023 Housing Law.
The bigger European problem
Idealista’s statement warned that hyper-regulation in Europe risks destroying local competitiveness, a concern echoed by Mario Draghi’s recent report on EU productivity. Europe has 52 different competition authorities — compared with just two in the United States — which slows innovation and prevents the emergence of European champions.
By smothering Idealista’s perfectly reasonable attempt to buy a smaller rival, Spain’s regulators have sent a clear message: independence and success will be punished. If this continues, only foreign giants such as Zillow or Rightmove will be left standing while European innovators are regulated out of existence.
