The survey was aimed at New York brokerage leaders after Compass grew into a major real estate powerhouse in the state and beyond.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has launched an investigation into Compass International Holdings’ expansion in the state.
That’s according to a report published Wednesday by The Real Deal, and independently confirmed by Inman.
Officials from Mr. James’s office’s antitrust division contacted executives at major New York securities firms to gather information.
Neither the Attorney General’s Office nor a Compass spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
The scope of the investigation was not immediately clear, but it comes after Compass has grown into the nation’s largest real estate company through a series of mergers and acquisitions. Earlier this year, the company completed a $1.6 billion merger with Anywhere Real Estate. This merger placed Compass in a much better position than all other real estate companies.
The acquisition follows Compass’ acquisition of @Properties, along with the Christie’s International Real Estate brands, for $444 million last year.
Compass is now so large that consumer advocacy groups warn it is poised to dominate local markets and influence industry governance.
“In the five markets studied, Compass’s unit market share is in the 30-30 range. [percent] “In terms of dollar sales, that percentage is even higher. And it’s a much smaller percentage of unit sales for its major competitors,” the Consumer Policy Center said in an April report.
In recent months, Compass has been making an impact by partnering with local multiple listing services to pull their listings away from Zillow.
MRED in Chicago, Realtracks in Nashville, and BrightMLS in the Mid-Atlantic Coast each announced that they are expanding their operations to allow subscribers to participate no matter where they are based. As part of these announcements, each MLS said it has partnered with Compass to secure Compass’ complete listings.
Meanwhile, Compass has cut off its list feed from Zillow. This means that if MLS also disconnects Zillow’s data feed, Zillow will lose access to display listings from Compass International Holdings.
This briefly happened in Chicago last month when MRED moved to block Zillow’s direct data feed. Amid legal battles between Zillow, MRED and Compass, more than half of all listed properties on the market disappeared before a judge ordered temporary restoration.
Realtracs also announced that it will be discontinuing its Zillow data feed on June 8th.
Investors appear to be taking the report seriously, as Compass stock was down more than 10% by midday Wednesday.
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