Real Brokerage acquires RE/MAX for $880M in stock-and-cash deal

The Real Brokerage agreed to acquire RE/MAX Holdings in a stock-and-cash transaction valued at $880 million, the companies said Wednesday, combining two of the most recognised names in residential real estate into a single entity with more than 180,000 agents operating across over 120 countries.

The combined company will be branded Real ReMax Group, with Real Chairman and Chief Executive Tamir Poleg leading the firm. It is the largest M&A deal in the residential brokerage sector since the post-pandemic housing surge cooled. The transaction, which values RE/MAX at roughly 7 times its fully synergised 2025 earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals.

“This acquisition is an important step on our journey to build a technology platform that empowers real estate professionals and improves the consumer experience,” Poleg said in a statement. “Bringing together Real’s technology and operating model with REMAX’s global reach and franchise model is a transformational moment for the industry.”

The transaction brings together two sharply different operating models. Real, founded in 2014 and publicly traded on the Nasdaq, runs a cloud-based brokerage that leans heavily on proprietary technology and a revenue-sharing model to recruit agents. RE/MAX, launched in 1973 by Dave and Gail Liniger, built its brand on the franchise model — local broker-owners pay fees to license the red-white-and-blue balloon logo and access the firm’s referral network.

Both companies have been navigating a residential real estate market that remains constrained by elevated mortgage rates and low inventory. Combining Real’s technology stack with RE/MAX’s global franchise footprint — and stripping out $30 million in annual run-rate costs — produces a leaner, more competitive platform regardless of where the housing cycle heads next, executives said.

Erik Carlson, RE/MAX’s chief executive, framed the transaction in similar terms. “REMAX is pleased to announce this transaction with Real to create a leading global real estate platform,” Carlson said. “Real brings differentiated, competitive technology that we believe will drive greater choice, higher productivity and expanded support to our network.”

The deal math

The $880 million enterprise valuation prices RE/MAX at roughly 7 times its fully synergised 2025 EBITDA, a multiple that sits in the middle of recent brokerage-sector transactions. Consideration is a mix of Real stock and cash, though the companies did not disclose the exact split or the per-share price RE/MAX shareholders will receive, according to a statement from RE/MAX Holdings.

Real expects to realise about $30 million in annual run-rate savings once the integration is complete. Those savings are expected to come from overlapping corporate functions, technology platform consolidation and the elimination of duplicate public-company costs. The companies did not provide a timeline for when the full overlap run-rate would be achieved.

Dave Liniger, who co-founded RE/MAX more than five decades ago and remains its chairman, controls approximately 38 per cent of the company’s voting power and has indicated support for the deal. That backing effectively clears the path on the seller’s side. But the transaction still requires a vote of RE/MAX’s broader shareholder base in addition to standard regulatory reviews.

What changes

More than just agent-count arithmetic, the acquisition pairs Real’s comparatively lean, technology-forward operating model — headquartered in Toronto and New York, with no physical brokerage offices — against RE/MAX’s entrenched franchise network. That network spans thousands of independently owned offices from suburban America to markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Real has grown aggressively since its 2020 public listing, roughly tripling its agent base through a mix of organic recruitment and smaller acquisitions. RE/MAX, by contrast, has been retrenching. The company shed agents and franchisees in 2024 and 2025 as higher interest rates slowed transaction volumes across the US housing market, with total agent count slipping below 140,000 from a peak above 144,000, HousingWire reported.

The combined entity will rank among the largest residential real estate brokerages globally by agent count, behind only a handful of privately held competitors. And the brand integration — merging Real’s digital-native identity with RE/MAX’s five-decade consumer franchise — remains the open question, one the companies said they intend to address closer to closing.

Poleg, who will remain chairman and CEO of the combined group, said the integration plan will preserve the RE/MAX brand in markets where it carries stronger consumer recognition while folding Real’s technology into the franchise network’s operations. The combined corporate headquarters will be based in Toronto.

Whether the deal prompts further consolidation among mid-tier brokerages now facing the same margin pressures that drove RE/MAX toward a sale is a question analysts expect to gain traction as the transaction moves toward its H2 2026 close. For now, the industry’s largest-ever technology-and-franchise combination has a name, a leader and a clear integration thesis — and roughly a year to prove the math works.