BUYER POOL ANALYSIS
Selling a Real Estate Brokerage to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up buyers
Private equity firms and PE-backed platform consolidators acquiring for roll-up, add-on, or platform plays. Pricing tends to lead the market for fee-viable scale, with multi-bidder competitive processes above the EBITDA floor.
Quick answers
- What multiple does this buyer pool pay?
- Median EV/EBITDA 5.86x across 4 disclosed deals (P25: 4.65x, P75: 10.7x). Median EV/Revenue 0.56x across 8 deals. Median deal value: $94.5M.
- How many disclosed transactions?
- 10 deals total (2 from 2018+), filtered to Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquirers of real estate brokerage businesses.
- Most active buyers
- Title Resources Guaranty Company (1) · Bricks Newco Limited (:PRPP.F) (1) · Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., prior to merger with DTZ Holdings plc (1) · Shats International Holdings, Inc. (1) · City Capital Corporation (:SYTR) (1) · IFIL - Finanziaria di Partecipazioni S.p.A. (:IFL) (1)
Recent disclosed deals
Private Equity / PE-Backed Roll-Up acquisitions of real estate brokerage businesses with named target, named acquirer, and disclosed financials.
| Year | Target | Acquirer | EV | EV/EBITDA | EV/Rev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Doma Holdings Inc. | Title Resources Guaranty Company | $274.3M | — | 0.61x |
| 2018 | ComFree Commonsense Network Inc. | Bricks Newco Limited (:PRPP.F) | $39.0M | 12.1x | 1.12x |
| 2014 | Massey Knakal Realty Services, Inc. | Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., prior to merger with DTZ Holdings plc | $101.0M | — | 1.26x |
| 2011 | Trans Atlantic Capital Group, Inc. | Shats International Holdings, Inc. | $0.1M | — | 0.01x |
| 2007 | Granite Real Estate Investment Company, LLC | City Capital Corporation (:SYTR) | $1.4M | — | 0.03x |
| 2006 | Cushman & Wakefield Holdings, Inc. | IFIL - Finanziaria di Partecipazioni S.p.A. (:IFL) | $766.0M | — | 0.83x |
What this buyer pool prices for
Private equity acquirers price for scale and roll-up arbitrage. They pay up for businesses that fit a platform thesis — recurring revenue mix above 30%, technician/professional depth, clean financials, and a management layer that survives integration. The same real estate brokerage can command 1.5x to 2x the multiple of an individual-buyer transaction simply because the PE buyer is acquiring a platform piece, not an owner-operated shop.
Methodology note
Multiples shown are computed from disclosed M&A transactions in the ExitValue.ai database, filtered to real estate brokerage businesses acquired by private equity / pe-backed roll-up buyers. EV/EBITDA outliers outside the [0.5x, 60x] band and EV/Revenue outliers outside [0.05x, 25x] are excluded from medians. Where available, post-2018 transactions are weighted; otherwise the all-time sample is used. Deal counts shown reflect deals with disclosed financials only — total transaction count for this buyer pool is typically 2-3x larger. Full methodology
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