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Compass and Zillow\u2019s clash over private listings in the sales market has spilled into New York City rentals, according to a lawsuit filed last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The class-action lawsuit, initially filed on Aug. 19th by two plaintiffs and then re-filed with a different plaintiff, claims that the monopoly Compass holds over the rental market in Manhattan has driven up rents and lowered the number of available apartments.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The suit argues that Compass represents a monopoly after acquiring competitors, and claims that the company controls over 80 percent of rental listings in Manhattan. Plaintiff Charles Lieberman alleges that Compass caused rents to soar when its agents \u201cdelisted\u201d apartments from publicly accessible sites such as StreetEasy<\/a> and Apartments.com.<\/a><\/p>\n Removing listings from public sites, the complaint said, means renters can only access Compass listings on its own site by hiring an agent. \u201cToday, Compass is a living, breathing real estate leviathan,\u201d the complaint said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Compass did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the amended complaint,<\/a>\u00a0Lieberman used StreetEasy to find a Lower East Side two-bedroom apartment and initially signed a lease for $4,000 in August. However, he was told he had to pay a broker fee that had been added to his rent, despite not hiring an agent. His new rent was $4,850.<\/p>\n \u201cLieberman was deprived of a normal functioning market in the relevant market because of the dearth in supply caused by Compass in addition to its practical economic result: higher rent prices and the necessity to pay a brokers fee,\u201d the complaint said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Compass, one of the country\u2019s largest brokerages, recently went all in on a new private listings strategy<\/a> for residential sales. The three-phase approach starts with sellers listing their properties privately, shared only with buyers represented by Compass agents. Sites like StreetEasy and its parent brand Zillow and some brokerages have pushed back, arguing that private listings reduce competition and allow for housing discrimination. Other firms have beefed up their private listings offerings.<\/p>\n In a statement regarding the renters\u2019 lawsuit, a StreetEasy spokesperson said the company supports \u201cefforts to bring accountability\u201d to the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n “When listings are deliberately hidden from public platforms, real consumers pay the price. This summer, New Yorkers have seen exactly that play out, with one dominant brokerage deciding which homes people get to see and further squeezing the NYC market during a housing crisis,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n The 80 percent rental market share cited in the lawsuit is an estimate from a study based on Compass\u2019 sales market share. Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel,<\/a> said that 80 percent is an \u201cinference,\u201d not a certainty.<\/p>\n \u201cThey own basically the footprint in a dominant way,\u201d he said of Compass, something he thinks is bad for renters and may have consequences for housing discrimination.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have a monopoly or a near monopoly or just somebody that is overly dominant in a market, the monopoly gets particularly good at self-serving, and that costs the consumer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Bess Freedman, CEO of brokerage Brown Harris Stevens,<\/a>\u00a0said she believes this lawsuit won\u2019t be the last of its kind.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis will be the first of many lawsuits the industry will now face because transparency and open access to information are being threatened,\u201d Freedman said in an email to Brick. She previously criticized Compass in an op-ed, <\/a>invoking Bernie Madoff\u2019s fraud<\/a> as another example of consumers being sold a narrative that doesn\u2019t hold up to scrutiny.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the lawsuit, a Compass marketing playbook instructed agents to remove rental listings from StreetEasy and move them into REBNY\u2019s RLS system with a \u201cparticipants only\u201d designation, making the rentals visible only to other agents in the network.<\/p>\n \u201cI think any time information is actively hidden from consumers, it is problematic. Someone looking to rent a home in NYC will be missing out on hundreds of listings that have been siloed into this participants-only network, so they are compelled to hire an agent just to see what\u2019s out there,\u201d Freedman said.<\/p>\n While the FARE Act <\/a>shifted responsibility for mandatory broker fees from renters to landlords, renters who hire an agent must pay the agent\u2019s commission. Making listings only available to people who hire Compass agents is a way to incentivize working with an agent.\u00a0<\/p>\n Miller thinks this trend is bad for renters, who might have used publicly accessible listings sites to get an objective sense of the going rent for an apartment.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of doing your preliminary research, you have to call somebody who works for a commission, and only gets paid that commission if they find you a place,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n In August, Manhattan median rent<\/a> hit $4,500 a month, a decrease from July\u2019s median rent but a 6.5 percent uptick from the same time last year. Listings were down 45.3 percent from August 2025, the largest decline in inventory in over three years, according to The Real Deal Rental Report<\/a> by Jonathan Miller.<\/p>\n Miller said other inflationary pressures such as President Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs and the war with Iran have also impacted median rents.\u00a0<\/p>\n High interest rates mean that some would-be buyers are opting to remain \u201ccamped out\u201d as renters, increasing competition for apartments.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn many ways the consumer is trapped. You have record rents and you have rising mortgage rates, but limited inventory, which keeps housing prices elevated,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThen you have a company in the mix that has an 80 percent market share that’s hiding product\u201d from consumers.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\nBlaming Compass for low inventory, high Manhattan rents\u00a0<\/h2>\n
‘Dominant in a market’<\/h2>\n
Hidden inventory\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Rising rents<\/h2>\n