ditorial composite of two people reviewing architectural plans beside an aerial view of a residential development under construction.

CoStar completes $800 million Zonda acquisition to expand into new-home data

Written by Joseph Nordqvist

Published: 17:24, August 23, 2026

CoStar Group has completed its $800 million cash acquisition of Zonda, adding construction data, homebuilder software and two online marketplaces focused on newly built homes.

The transaction closed on 21 August 2026 after receiving the required regulatory approvals and satisfying other closing conditions. CoStar announced the agreement in May and reported the closing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Zonda generated approximately $170 million in revenue during 2025 and served more than 3,000 customers, according to CoStar. Those customers include homebuilders, property developers, lenders and building-material suppliers.

The company also reported an adjusted EBITDA margin of 23%. Adjusted EBITDA is a company-defined measure of operating profit before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and selected other items. It is useful for comparing operations, but it is not the same as net income or cash flow.

Zonda brings data from before a home reaches the market

CoStar already operates property-data services and marketplaces including CoStar, Apartments.com, Homes.com and LoopNet. Zonda extends that coverage further into the new-home construction process.

Its database tracks individual building lots, new-home communities, land development, construction status, sales and builder operations. Customers use the information when evaluating land, forecasting demand, deciding where to invest and managing sales.

The acquisition also gives CoStar control of NewHomeSource.com and Livabl. Both websites connect builders with people searching for newly constructed homes and provide information including floor plans, prices, incentives and virtual tours.

This combination matters because the business has two connected sides. Zonda sells subscription data and software to the industry, while its marketplaces bring builders in front of prospective buyers. CoStar believes its existing data, advertising and property technology can be sold to Zonda customers, and that Zonda’s products can be offered across CoStar’s larger customer base.

The price is about 4.7 times Zonda’s 2025 revenue

The $800 million purchase price is equivalent to roughly 4.7 times Zonda’s reported 2025 revenue. That is an MBN calculation, not a formal valuation multiple, because the closing announcement does not provide all the debt, cash and purchase-accounting information needed to calculate enterprise value.

CoStar is therefore paying for more than Zonda’s current sales. The case for the acquisition depends on recurring subscription revenue, proprietary construction data and opportunities to sell more services to both companies’ customers.

CoStar reported second-quarter revenue of $925 million, up 18% from the previous year. Residential revenue increased 33% to $444 million, while company-adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $184 million. Those figures show that Zonda is entering a residential operation that was already expanding before the purchase closed.

Management also plans to connect Zonda’s Envision home-visualization tools with Matterport, the three-dimensional property technology business CoStar acquired in 2025. The intended product combination remains a plan rather than a completed integration.

Integration now becomes the test

CoStar has described the US new-home market as representing approximately $400 billion in annual sales, but that figure and the expected commercial benefits are company estimates.

The closing release did not quantify expected cost savings or provide a timetable for combining the businesses. CoStar’s own risk statement identifies integration costs, employee retention, housing-market cycles and the ability to maintain traffic across its online marketplaces as factors that could affect the outcome.

The acquisition is complete, but the return on the $800 million outlay will depend on whether CoStar can connect Zonda’s specialist builder data with its larger property-information and marketplace network without weakening the products that made Zonda useful to its existing customers.

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