What The Zillow-Redfin Deal Means For NYC Renters

NEW YORK CITY— Zillow and Redfin can no longer rely on a shared pool of apartment listings without also offering renters listings exclusive to each company under a settlement announced Monday by federal and state authorities.

The deal resolves an antitrust lawsuit that accused the two real estate giants of combining their rental-listing operations in a way that reduced competition and threatened to push up costs for renters and landlords.

New York Attorney General Letitia James joined the Federal Trade Commission in suing the companies last year.

Attorneys general from Connecticut, Arizona, Washington and Virginia also challenged the partnership.

The settlement requires Redfin to rebuild its multifamily rental advertising business, which the company largely shut down in February 2025 after Zillow agreed to invest $100 million in Redfin.

The companies can continue sharing listings, but they must also provide apartments that are exclusive to each platform. Individual landlords will decide which listings appear on which sites.

What Changes For NYC Renters?

The biggest change for renters may not come immediately: the companies' revamped products are not expected to launch before winter 2027.

For now, Zillow and Redfin can continue sharing rental listings.

But the settlement is designed to give Redfin a rental business of its own again.

That could eventually mean more listings appearing on Redfin but not on Zillow or StreetEasy, which Zillow owns— and vice versa.

For New Yorkers, that could make the apartment hunt more fragmented.

Zillow also operates Trulia, HotPads and Out East.

Redfin operates Rent.com and ApartmentGuide.com, giving the company several platforms where it can rebuild its presence in the rental market.

That means renters could eventually have a practical reason to search beyond StreetEasy or any single listing service.

Redfin must rebuild the infrastructure behind its multifamily advertising business, including systems for landlords and property managers to submit listings, pay for advertising and work with Redfin directly. It must also hire employees to operate and sell the service.

For renters, the long-term question is whether that competition produces a larger pool of apartments across multiple sites or simply forces apartment hunters to check more places.

“Today’s resolution is a significant win for Redfin and consumers across the country,” a Redfin spokeswoman said in a statement. “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 – from their first rental to their first home and beyond.”

Zillow also called the settlement a win.

“This positive resolution enables us to keep our energy on innovating for renters and property managers, and ultimately making renting easier, more affordable and better for everyone,” Michael Sherman, a senior vice president of Zillow’s rentals division, said in a statement.

Why Did The Government Challenge The Deal?

The government alleged that Zillow and Redfin's 2025 agreement removed a major competitor from an already concentrated online rental-listing market.

Under their agreement, Redfin ended its advertising business for multifamily buildings with 25 or more apartments, transferred its clients to Zillow and eliminated 450 jobs, according to James' lawsuit.

Redfin also agreed to stay out of the multifamily advertising business until at least 2034.

The government and the state attorneys general argued that the arrangement effectively left Apartments.com owner CoStar as the only major independent competitor in the market.

“The wholesale elimination of critical competition in this highly concentrated space will harm rental advertisers and the Americans who rely on (online listing services),” James wrote in her 36-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Redfin websites continued to carry some rental listings in recent months, including New York City apartments, but those advertisements originated on Zillow, according to the lawsuit.