The compromised data includes names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, and sensitive information such as annual income and asset ownership.

Lifull Co. stated, "We have contacted each user and related party who may have been affected by the unauthorized access via email with the subject ‘Apologies for the information leak due to unauthorized access to our server.’" The company also emphasized its commitment to preventing future incidents, adding, "We take this incident very seriously and will further strengthen our operations, such as managing where various information is stored and access rights, as well as internal training."

Lifull operates the real estate marketplace Homes.co.jp and manages a portfolio of real estate brands across the globe as well as aggregator sites such as Mitula, Trovit and Nestoria.

Rather than being linked to its homepage, Fotocasa brAIn is available via the portal's blog site 'Fotocasa Life' and is designed to help users with general housing queries rather than listing discovery.

According to a blog post announcing the launch, the new tool has been built using the technology behind Chat GPT  and can answer queries related to things like property taxes, renovations, subsidies, paperwork and household bills.

Fotocasa is owned by the Oslo-based classifieds operator Adevinta and competes primarily with idealista and Pisos.com.

Online Marketplaces has been tracking all portal AI announcements since 2019. The pace with which real estate portals around the world have been announcing their experiments with AI applications has increased dramatically over the last two years with no one particular application of the technology so far emerging as a 'must have'.

Starting in November, dedicated Relationship Managers will be assigned to customers, replacing the previous Account Partner model. According to a company press release, these relationship managers will have an in-depth knowledge of their customers' businesses and the property market.

The revamped customer support team will also include Specialist Sales staff whose job is to provide tailored product recommendations, Customer Success Consultants to handle onboarding and training, and extended-hours Customer Support for critical issues.

REA Group’s Chief Customer Officer, Kul Singh, emphasized the customer-first focus of the new service model, stating, “Delivering the best customer service is a key priority and our new model is designed to simplify the process of connecting with REA. Our goal under the new specialised model is to make it easier for customers to make the most of these enhancements.”

Nathan Gallagher, REA Group’s National Sales Director, who will lead the core sales team, added, “With more boots on the ground we are set to better support customers in maximising the value of doing business with REA. Feedback from pilots in Tasmania, Victoria, and NT has been incredibly positive.”

The launch follows recent organizational updates that saw REA double the size of its Customer Group and integrate new customer platforms and services into the group, including the Ignite self-service campaign management platform.

An REA statement released this morning to the ASX outlining its latest bid which has an implied offer price of 775 pence per share—valuing Rightmove at £6.2 billion. It also includes the provision of a special dividend of 6 pence per share which REA says brings the premium to Rightmove's volume-weighted average share price over the last twelve months.

The Australian portal operator is offering a "mix and match" option to Rightmove shareholders who it is now urging "to make their views known to the board".

The statement again bemoans Rightmove's refusal to engage in any dialogue beyond "cursory procedural telephone calls with the Rightmove Chairman" and calls for Rightmove's board to grant an extension of the 30th of September deadline.

In comments accompanying the release, REA Group CEO, Owen Wilson confirmed that his company had been bypassing Rightmove's board and meeting in private with its shareholders, raising the prospect of a hostile takeover.

"While the Rightmove Board has refused to meet us, we have enjoyed the opportunity to connect with Rightmove shareholders and to share our vision for the combination of the no. 1 digital property business in the Uk and Australia. We continue to see the potential for us to strengthen Rightmove and accelerate its growth. This is a compelling opportunity to create a true global technology leader on the London market via a secondary listing, operating in two of the most attractive markets in the world."

According to figures published in a report on the local business publication WirtualMedia, the company achieved an EBITDA margin of 20.4% in 2023, a slight improvement on the 19.6% margin reported in 2022. There was a reduction in external service costs which led to a decreased growth rate in the company's operating expenses (PLN 44.54 million in 2023).

The company's co-founder and former leader Jaroslaw Swiecicki recently stepped aside to a board position to leave day-to-day leadership to Lukasz Szymak.

Morizon Gratka is a subsidiary of MZN Property which in turn is a subsidiary of Ringier Axel Springer - a joint venture between the German publisher Axel Springer and the Swiss Media company Ringier. In the rest of Europe, Ringier bought out Axel Springer in 2023 but the joint venture remains intact in the Polish market.

The group operates the Morizon real estate vertical, the new build portal Noweinwestycje.pl and the Gratka.pl horizontal classifieds site. The group's main competitor in residential real estate is Otodom.pl which is run by OLX group.

REA and Athena first partnered in 2022, combining Athena’s home loan products with REA’s distribution network through its Mortgage Choice brand. In June 2023, the companies launched the Mortgage Choice Freedom suite of white-label products, which exceeded expectations by delivering $1.2 billion in settlements for FY24.

REA Group CEO Owen Wilson said, “REA’s proposed investment in Athena will further enhance our existing partnership and reinforces our commitment to providing Australian homebuyers with greater choice and a seamless consumer experience when finding and financing property.”

Nathan Walsh, CEO and Co-Founder of Athena Home Loans, added, “Athena is on an exciting growth trajectory and we’re thrilled to have the support of a culturally-aligned company like REA, building on the proven success of our partnership to date.”

REA Group has a long and varied history in the mortgage business. The portal specialist first tried to break into the industry back in 2006 when it launched REA Home Loans as a joint venture with Ray White's mortgage business only to divest from it 18 months later. After one more failed attempt under the same name, the company decided to go down the M&A path and agreed to pay A$244 million for the ASX-listed mortgage brokerage, Mortgage Choice in 2021.

According to a press release the move is part of a "strategic refocus" which will see Property Finder streamline operations and double down on its core mission of empowering customers to make informed real estate decisions.

“As the real estate industry increasingly relies on digital transformation, the CRM market represents a key driver of operational efficiency for real estate professionals. This transition creates an independent entity to better serve our industry,” said Michael Lahyani, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Property Finder. “Through this transition, we are giving PropSpace the freedom to innovate and continue its leadership in the CRM space. ”

PropSpace will now operate as an independent entity and will be led by Patrick Caulfield, who joins as Chief Executive Officer having previously served as Managing Director of Arthur Online, one of the UK’s leading property management CRMs.

Property Finder took control of PropSpace along with rival portal domain JustProperty when it acquired the brand's parent company JRD Group in 2019.

Property Finder operates real estate marketplaces in its home market, as well as in Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

HomesNI was launched earlier this month by BlueCubes, a Belfast-based web design company that has been catering to agents for many years. The portal claimed to have 120 agents signed up and over 11,000 listings on launch.

Meanwhile, NI Bricks is also fresh on the scene and looking to gain market share by offering agents three months of free listings. The portal is being run by Soham Technologies Limited and is the brainchild of Pragati Dhingra, a 20-year veteran of the PropTech industry.

The emergence of the two new portals comes after previous rivals Property Pal and Property News announced a shock merger in August. Prior to the merger Property Pal, which was considered the market leader, was involved in a pricing dispute with its agent customers.

Now both HomesNI and  NI Bricks are looking to capitalise on agents' concerns over possible price rises being considered by PropertyPal and Property News bosses.

Founder and CEO of NI Bricks Pragati Dhingra said: “NI Bricks was born out of a need for innovation in the real estate sector. We recognised the gap in affordable, tech-driven solutions for estate agents."

“With this platform, we aim to lead the digital transformation of the real estate industry in Northern Ireland, ensuring that agents can maximise their reach, minimise their costs, and enhance their business efficiency.”

André Penha co-founded the Brazilian Proptech giant alongside fellow Stanford Gabriel Braga in 2012 and served as the company's CTO until a recent move to manage the firm's operations in Mexico.

He has now stepped down from his position and from the 1st of October will begin a new role as the CEO of IBBX, a company that specializes in wireless transmission technology.

Penha invested in IBBX back in 2019 and revealed in a recent interview with Startups.com.br that the company's founder, Fernando Destro, asked him to take over as CEO back in June.

The interview revealed that Penha effectively stepped away from management duties at QuintoAndar's Mexican operations as early as June this year, dedicating himself to his newborn son.

Before that, he had overseen QuintoAndar's consolidation of its Mexican real estate marketplace assets as the Sao Paulo-based company acquired leading portals Inmuebles24 and Vivanuncios and launched a rental product similar to the one that has brought it so much success domestically. Once those milestones were reached, as Penha told Startups.com.brm, planning for his departure was smooth.

“The succession process went very well. My successors worked without me. And that turned on a light bulb. I decided to take some time for myself,”

Penha, who is a computer engineer and cryptographer by training, will retain his seat on the board of QuintoAndar.

The British real estate marketplace company released a brief statement to the London Stock Exchange this morning which called the "unsolicited, non-binding and highly conditional" third offer "unattractive" and urged its shareholders not to take any action.

The Australian company, which has until the 30th of September to make any new offers, also released a statement in which it bemoaned Rightmove's refusal to enter into constructive dialogue.

"REA is disappointed by the latest rejection from the Board of Directors of Rightmove and is frustrated that, save for the rejection of REA's three previously disclosed proposals, REA has still had no substantive engagement with Rightmove. "

The statement also reiterated REA's belief that the latest proposed deal represents good value for Rightmove's shareholders and encouraged them to implore the board to enter into discussions.

"REA continues to firmly believe that the Further Improved Proposal represents a highly compelling proposition for Rightmove's shareholders at a significant premium to relevant trading metrics, providing a combination of immediate value certainty in cash and at the same time giving Rightmove shareholders the opportunity to benefit from the future value creation of the combined business."

"REA urges Rightmove shareholders to encourage the Board of Directors of Rightmove to engage in constructive discussions with REA to work towards a recommended transaction, ahead of the upcoming deadline".

The third rejection in quick succession comes after REA Group upped its initial bid from £5.6 billion to £5.9 billion on the 20th of September and then again to £6.1 billion on Monday.

In terms of shareholder value, REA has said its latest offer (771p per share) is worth a 39% premium to Rightmove’s share price before the announcement of the initial offer. Rightmove has disputed the premium figure claiming that the “implied value” of the bid had dropped to 761p per share, after falls in the REA share price. In its latest statement, Rightmove said that value had edged down again to 759p.

Below: Watch former REA Group CEO, Simon Baker discuss the deal on the PPW Podcast.