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Homek: Dutch Estate Agents Plan a Funda Rival They Own Themselves. What the Revolt Against Funda's New Fees Teaches Platform Founders

TL;DR: What is Homek?

Homek is a planned Dutch house-listing site, announced on 4 November 2026 by a group of estate agents and former NVM board members as an alternative to Funda. Agents buy a certificate (€1,000 per agent, €1,750 per office), become co-owners and share the profit from year three. Listings will cost €95 or €140, with no paid ranking. Homek only builds once 1,000 certificates are sold and aims to launch in March 2027. The trigger: Funda's new packages of up to €536 excl. VAT, live since 16 September.
Homek, a house-listing platform that Dutch estate agents want to own themselves, became a search trend in the Netherlands this week, three days after its founders went public with a plan to take on Funda. Funda is the country's biggest house-listing site, with about 5.3 million unique visitors a month in 2024, and the agents who list on it just saw its top package more than double in price. So a group of them, including one of the people behind Funda's start 25 years ago, is pre-selling a rival before writing a line of code. For founders, this is a live case study in platform power, supplier revolt and validation by pre-commitment. Here is what was announced, what is still unproven, and what to take from it.

What is Homek and who is behind it?

Homek is run by Stichting Homek, a Dutch foundation that fully owns the operating company Homek B.V. RTL Z broke the story on Wednesday 4 November, and DutchNews summed it up in English a day later. The people named so far are all estate agents (makelaars) with long NVM careers:
  • Sven Heinen, an Amsterdam agent, is the intended chair of the foundation;
  • Toine Naber, former chair of NVM West-Brabant and of NVM-MIOS, and a former member of Funda's advisory board;
  • Frits Markus, former chair of NVM Wonen;
  • Hans Snijders, former chair of the NVM membership committee.
The NVM is the largest Dutch association of estate agents, and it founded Funda in 2001. Naber put the irony plainly to RTL Z: "As brokers, we came up with Funda ourselves." (Quotes from RTL Z in this article are DutchNews's English translations.) Homek has no listings yet. Right now it is a sign-up page and a pre-order for certificates.

How will Homek work?

The Homek sign-up page describes a model that looks more like a cooperative than a startup. Agents and offices buy one certificate each, and only qualified register agents who fall under independent disciplinary law (tuchtrecht) may list homes.
Homek's plan (as of 7 November 2026)
Certificate, per agent€1,000 now, €1,500 after the start-up phase
Certificate, per office€1,750 now, €2,250 after the start-up phase
Listing fee€95 (Basis) or €140 (Plus, with all AI features)
Paid rankingNone: listings are shown without pay-to-win
Profit100% to certificate holders: 40% split equally among agents, 60% to offices by number of listings
First payoutYear three
ExitFrom year five, investment refunded; certificates are not freely tradeable
Go-aheadBuilding continues once 1,000 certificates are sold; nobody pays before that
LaunchMarch 2027 (RTL Z)
Source: stichtinghomek.nl, read 7 November 2026; launch month from RTL Z. DutchNews, quoting RTL Z, adds an alternative condition: the plan goes ahead once 1,000 agents buy in or the foundation raises €1 million. Homek's own page only mentions the 1,000 certificates. Heinen told RTL Z that Homek raised €200,000 within 48 hours. That is his claim, and Homek has not published a certificate count.

Why are estate agents turning against Funda?

Money and control. On 18 June 2026 Funda announced three new packages, Brons, Zilver and Goud. NOS reported that the cheapest costs €231 and the most expensive €536, both excluding VAT. Before the change NVM members paid €110 for the cheapest package. FD, quoted by DutchNews, put the old premium package at €235, so the top tier more than doubled. A plain listing on Funda stays free, and FD reported that about 80% of listings already paid for extras.
Two other details upset agents more than the price. The chosen package now affects how visible a home is, with Goud above Zilver above Brons. And sellers can now pay Funda directly, which agents read as Funda building its own relationship with their clients. On 13 July, NOS reported that 19 regional and local NVM branches had written to Funda's board calling the new fees disproportionate ("disproportioneel") and asking for the decision to be reversed. Funda said it would talk to them, and the packages went live on 16 September anyway.
Funda can afford to hold the line. FD reported a 2025 profit of €34.2 million on revenue of €73.3 million. Its owners are NVM Holding (71%), the investor General Atlantic (24%) and a trust foundation, STAK funda (5%), according to General Atlantic's 2024 announcement, which also put Funda at about 5.3 million unique visitors a month and more than 5,300 listing brokers.

What does Funda say about Homek?

Funda sounds relaxed. Spokesperson Claire Verhagen told RTL Z: "In a healthy market, there is competition, and sometimes new players join. We look forward to that with confidence." The NVM, which still owns the majority of Funda, has published nothing about Homek on its own news page so far.

Can an agent-owned site actually beat Funda?

Homek's founders know the history. Heinen told RTL Z that earlier Funda rivals "all stalled because the supply was too limited". That is the classic two-sided marketplace problem: buyers go where the homes are, and agents list where the buyers are. In 2022 the Dutch competition authority ACM called Funda "een essentieel kanaal" for house hunters, a channel buyers can't do without, when it closed a preliminary probe into Funda's access rules.
Homek's answer is to start from the supply side and make the suppliers owners. If 1,000 agents and offices pay up front, they have a reason to put every listing on Homek, and a certificate holder who also earns from the profit pool has a reason to send buyers there. The weak spot is demand. Agents will keep listing on Funda too, because sellers expect it, so Homek needs a reason for buyers to open a second site. Its pitch to buyers so far is fairness: no paid ranking, a transparent bidding log and no mortgage ads.
Homek is also not the only challenger. OpenWoning.nl, built by Peter Neef and Thijs Bruinsma from Vries in Drenthe, lists homes for free, pulls them nightly from agents' own websites and wants them found inside AI assistants such as ChatGPT. It shows 20 connected offices and publishes its running costs, about €171 a month. Two challengers with opposite models: one asks agents for €1,000 and offers ownership, the other asks for nothing and bets that AI search makes the big portal less of a gatekeeper. Our coverage of what this week's AI search studies say about traffic shows how far that shift has come, and how far it still has to go.

What does Homek teach founders who build or depend on platforms?

  1. Price power shows up late, then all at once. Funda's top tier went from €235 to €536 in one step, and paid visibility became part of the package. If one platform brings you most of your customers, model a 100% fee rise in your spreadsheet today. Our guide on pricing in a competitive market helps you rework the margin.
  2. Watch for the platform reaching your customer directly. The step that angered agents most was Funda billing sellers itself. When a platform you sell through starts talking to your clients, your position in the chain is up for negotiation.
  3. Pre-commitment beats a survey. Homek charges nothing until 1,000 certificates are sold, so every sign-up is a real promise of money. Founders can copy this with paid pre-orders or deposits; see customer-funded growth through pre-selling and how to build a waitlist that converts.
  4. Ownership is a supplier acquisition tool. A marketplace that gives its suppliers equity and a profit share solves the cold start on one side. It also caps your own upside, so decide early whether you are building a business to sell or a utility for a group.
  5. "No pay-to-win" is a positioning, and a cost. Homek gives up ranking fees, the revenue line Funda just expanded. If you promise fair ranking, price the listing so the business works without it.
  6. Plan for AI assistants as a channel. OpenWoning is betting that buyers will ask ChatGPT for homes. Make sure your own listings, products or prices are readable outside the big portal.
  7. The platform can become your competitor. It happened to finance apps when Anthropic put a finance hub inside Claude. For tactics against a bigger, better-funded rival, read how to compete with funded competitors.

What we don't know about Homek yet

  • How many certificates are sold. Only the €200,000 claim is public; Homek has not given a count of agents or offices.
  • The exact go-ahead rule. 1,000 certificates (Homek's site) or 1,000 agents or €1 million (RTL Z via DutchNews).
  • Whether VAT is included in Homek's €95 and €140 listing prices; its page does not say.
  • What the NVM will do as majority owner of Funda while some of its former board members build a rival.
  • Whether Funda changes its packages after the introductory offer that, according to agents' own explanations, runs until 31 December 2026.
We will add the certificate count and any response from the NVM or Funda to this article when they are published. Dutch founders following the money side of the Netherlands this month will also want our breakdown of Belastingplan 2027 and the new box 2 rates.
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FAQ: Homek

What is Homek?

Homek is a planned Dutch house-listing website, announced on 4 November 2026 by estate agents and former NVM board members as an alternative to Funda. It is owned by Stichting Homek, and agents who buy a certificate share in the profit.

When does Homek launch?

Homek aims to launch in March 2027, according to RTL Z. It only continues building once 1,000 certificates are sold, and it has no listings yet.

How much does Homek cost for estate agents?

A certificate costs €1,000 per register agent and €1,750 per office during the start-up phase, rising by €500 afterwards. Listings will cost €95 (Basis) or €140 (Plus with AI features).

Can anyone list a home on Homek?

No. Only qualified register agents who fall under independent disciplinary law can list homes. Private sellers can't place a listing themselves.

Why are estate agents unhappy with Funda?

Funda's new Brons, Zilver and Goud packages cost up to €536 excluding VAT, the package now affects ranking, and sellers can pay Funda directly. 19 NVM branches asked Funda in July to reverse the change.

Who owns Funda?

NVM Holding owns 71% of Funda, the investor General Atlantic 24% and the trust foundation STAK funda 5%, according to General Atlantic's announcement of February 2024. The NVM founded Funda in 2001.

About the Author

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
2026-11-07 10:50 News and Trends