German real estate IT giant Immowelt has acquired Dreamflat for an undisclosed amount. The Berlin-based startup’s platform connects those looking for somewhere to live – especially shared apartments, known in German as a Wohngemeinschaften or WGs – with potential landlords.
Dreamflat is primarily targeted at younger people living in cities, and offers mobile apps on Android and iOS as well as its Web platform. Users register via email or Facebook and input the parameters of what they are looking for, and are then linked up with possible matches.
“The concept of Dreamflat is innovative, and optimally expands the product portfolio of Immowelt AG in terms of focusing on the young target group for WG and apartment search,” said Immowelt management board member Ulrich Gros. “This above all allows for interesting synergies to arise for the development of mobile services.”
David Barnowsky, founder of Dreamflat, said: “We are delighted to henceforth be a part of Immowelt AG. Through this, we benefit not only from Immowelt’s high level of brand awareness and reach, but especially from the comprehensive know-how of the Immowelt experts in the field of real estate brokerage, as well as many years of experience with business models in the online real estate market.”
Founded in 2012, Dreamflat has so far been targeted at students, young professionals and commuters. The idea is to cut down on the amount of visits and communication needed to find the right place to live by matching up similar people. The flat search market in large German cities, and Berlin in particular, is large and competitive, and having brought together over 3,000 people in the capital, Dreamflat has expanded to Munich, Hamburg, Cologne and further afield. There are now plans to cover the whole of Germany as well as going international to major European cities such as London, Vienna and Zurich.
Immowelt was founded back in 1991, and earlier this month there were rumours that publishing house Axel Springer – which already owns rival Immonet – was looking to buy it. Both lag some way behind the market leader, Immobilienscout24.