Lifull
LIFULL operates Japan's largest housing and real estate information portal (LIFULL HOME'S) serving home-seeking consumers and real estate agencies, supplemented by 20+ subsidiaries spanning senior care, investment property, regional revitalization, and AI-powered fraud detection across 63 countries.
- Company typePublic
- Founded2009
- HeadquartersTokyo, Japan
- Headcount1,001–5,000
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingDigital Commerce or Content
What Lifull does
LIFULL Co., Ltd. is a Tokyo-headquartered, publicly-listed (TSE Prime, ticker 2120) digital platform company that operates Japan's largest housing and real estate information portal, LIFULL HOME'S. Founded in 1997 as HOME'S and reorganized under the LIFULL corporate entity in 2009, the company serves two primary customer segments: home-seeking consumers (freemium access via web and mobile app with 10M+ cumulative downloads) and real estate agencies/property management companies (B2B subscription and advertising). The underlying technology stack includes the proprietary KEEL application platform supporting service infrastructure, AI-powered fraud detection with 87% accuracy, conversational AI search (LIFULL AI / AIホームズくん), an Omakase AI Voice Agent, and Apple Vision Pro immersive model rooms.
Revenue is generated primarily through B2B listing fees, advertising, and lead-generation commissions from real estate companies subscribing to the platform. The company has expanded into adjacent housing lifecycle services through 20+ wholly-owned subsidiaries spanning senior care housing search (LIFULL 介護), investment property portals (Kenbiya), real estate crowdfunding, regional revitalization with 760+ municipal government partnerships, succession planning, childcare support (LIFULL FaM), prefabricated housing (Instant House), and co-living (LivingAnywhere Commons). International presence includes development subsidiaries in Vietnam (2017) and Malaysia (2023), a global property aggregation platform (LIFULL Connect, formerly Trovit, acquired 2014), and a Thailand partnership (2026), with services spanning 63 countries. The FRIENDLY DOOR network of 7,000+ partner stores connects vulnerable housing seekers (elderly, foreign nationals, LGBTQ+, disabled) with inclusive real estate agents.
Lifull firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Lifull
- Legal name
- 株式会社LIFULL
- Website
- https://lifull.com
- Company type
- Public
- Founded year
- 2009
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1,001–5,000 employees
- Short description
- LIFULL operates Japan's largest housing and real estate information portal (LIFULL HOME'S) serving home-seeking consumers and real estate agencies, supplemented by 20+ subsidiaries spanning senior care, investment property, regional revitalization, and AI-powered fraud detection across 63 countries.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Lifull industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Online Real Estate Marketplace
- NAICS
- Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers (5312), Offices of Real Estate Agents and Brokers (531210)
- SIC
- Real Estate Agents & Managers (For Others) (6531), Real Estate (6500)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Residential Real Estate Brokerage (Buy/Sell) (FSAEAJAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Residential Investment Property Brokerage (SFR/Small Multifamily) (BPAJAAAE), Land & Development Site Brokerage (BPAJABAG)
Keywords
Where Lifull is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Tokyo
- HQ country
- Japan
- HQ region
- Asia
Offices3 records
Markets served
Lifull business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Digital Commerce or Content
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Real Estate Listing Fees: Real estate companies and property management companies pay to list properties on LIFULL HOME'S platform
- Advertising Revenue: Revenue from displaying advertisements to users on the platform, including banner ads and promoted listings
- Lead Generation / Consultation Services: LIFULL HOME'S 住まいの窓口 (Housing Consultation Window) connects users with housing advisors and earns referral/comission fees
- Premium Services for Real Estate Companies: B2B services including Outstanding Provider certification, enhanced listing features, and data analytics for real estate companies
- Home's Services Segment: Core housing information services segment driving 7% revenue growth in FY2025
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Consumer App - Free for end users |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels8 records
Lifull product offering
Product offeringCore offering
LIFULL operates Japan's largest real estate and housing information marketplace under the LIFULL HOME'S brand, connecting home seekers with property listings from thousands of real estate agencies. The platform is free for consumers and monetized primarily through B2B subscription listing fees, advertising, and referral/consultation fees from real estate companies and management firms. The portfolio extends into senior care housing search, regional revitalization services, real estate crowdfunding, investment property portals, and prefabricated housing products.
Product overview
LIFULL operates a diversified platform business centered on its core property information service LIFULL HOME'S, Japan's largest real estate and housing portal. The platform provides comprehensive housing search across rental, residential sales, custom-built homes, and resale, enhanced with AI-powered conversational search capabilities. Key differentiating features include proprietary AI fraud detection achieving 87% accuracy for fraudulent listing identification, multilingual AI support via LINE, hazard maps for disaster risk visualization, and the FRIENDLY DOOR service connecting vulnerable populations with accommodating landlords. The broader portfolio extends into adjacent domains including regional revitalization (LIFULL 地方創生 with 760+ municipal partnerships on vacant property databases), senior care housing search (LIFULL 介護), investment property services (健美家, LIFULL Investment, crowdfunding), and diverse lifestyle services including employment support for parents (LIFULL FaM), prefabricated housing (Instant House), co-living (LivingAnywhere Commons), and leadership development. International operations include development subsidiaries in Vietnam and Malaysia. The architecture combines a unified platform approach with specialized vertical modules, unified by shared infrastructure including AI/ML capabilities, the KEEL application platform, and proprietary property databases.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- LIFULL HOME'S: Japan's largest real estate and housing information service platform, covering rental, buy, new homes, and real estate sale.
- LIFULL 介護
- LIFULL 地方創生
- FRIENDLY DOOR
- LIFULL HOME'S ACTION FOR ALL
- LIFULL AI / AIホームズくん
- Omakase AI Voice Agent
- Instant House Mobile
- LivingAnywhere Commons
- 健美家 (Kenbiya)
- LIFULL Connect
- D&I+
Products and services
- LIFULL HOME'S Japan's largest real estate and housing information marketplace covering rental, residential sales (condos/houses), custom-built homes, and property resale; connects home seekers with property listings from real estate agencies.
- LIFULL 介護 (LIFULL Kaigo / LIFULL Senior)
Quantifiable outcome
- Fraudulent listing detection accuracy reached 87%
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use Lifull
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Lifull technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability11 records
Feature8 records
Lifull partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered regional, minor and core.
- Shimizu Town, HokkaidoregionalComprehensive partnership agreement for regional revitalization, addressing population decline and vacant house issues through initiatives including vacant house utilization, migration promotion, human resource development, and support for working households with children.
- DearOne Inc. (NTT Docomo subsidiary)minorCo-hosted PM Roundtable with Amplitude in Tokyo, where LIFULL presented case studies on using Amplitude's analytics platform.
- Fukuoka SoftBank HawksregionalOfficial sponsor partnership (Hawk's Partner) for the 2026 season, supporting regional marketing and community engagement in Fukuoka area real estate market.
- Tomas Engineering (Thailand)minorBusiness partnership with Thai company for LIFULL ArchiTech's Instant House Mobile product.
- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (国土交通省)coreSelected as implementation company for Ministry's 'Real Estate ID Model Project' to use property IDs for accurate listing matching and fraud prevention.
- 明和住販流通センター, 青山メインランド, TFDエステート, アートアベニュー, 三井不動産レジデンシャルリースcoreFive additional property management companies providing listing data, bringing total managed properties to approximately 1.72 million units.
- Waseda University Institute for Empirical Research in Organizational EconomicscoreJoint research partnership to analyze data and verify effectiveness of policies to combat fraudulent property listings. Aims to develop solutions for transparency in real estate transactions.
- イタンジ (Itandi)coreReal estate tech company providing ITANDI BB system for API-based property data sharing with Misawa Home Real Estate, enabling automatic listing updates on LIFULL HOME'S.
- ミサワホーム不動産 (Misawa Home Real Estate)coreProperty management company using ITANDI BB system for automatic listing updates, integrated with LIFULL HOME'S through Itandi partnership.
- 大東建託パートNERS (Daito Kentaku Partners)coreIndustry-leading property management company with 1.17 million managed units providing listing data for automatic removal of unavailable properties from LIFULL HOME'S. This is the largest such partnership in the industry.
- アミックス (Amex)coreProperty management company providing managed property information to LIFULL for matching with listings and automatic removal of unavailable properties. Industry-first initiative.
- 株式会社ミライロ (Mirairo)coreJoint development of 'Universal Manner Test (Real Estate)' to improve understanding and response capabilities for diverse customers in the real estate industry.
Scale indicators10 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Lifull competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Domain Holdings: Domain Group is a leading Australian residential property portal with a comparable freemium listing model serving agents, developers, and consumers. Its mix of portal advertising, data/insights products, and adjacent home services parallels LIFULL HOME'S strategic positioning.
- Rightmove: Rightmove is the UK's largest property portal, monetizing primarily through agent and developer advertising fees on a freemium B2B model closely parallel to LIFULL HOME'S. It serves as a structural comparable for portal economics, ad-tier pricing, and platform-led expansion into adjacent verticals.
- SUUMO (Recruit Holdings): Operated by Recruit Holdings, SUUMO is Japan's dominant housing and real estate portal and LIFULL HOME'S principal direct competitor. Both companies serve the same Japanese consumers and real estate agencies with property search, listings, and advertising on a freemium B2B2C model.
- AtHome: AtHome is one of Japan's largest real estate listing portals, directly competing with LIFULL HOME'S in rental and purchase property search. Its B2B listing-fee and advertising model mirrors LIFULL's core revenue streams in the Japanese market.
- Immobilienscout24 (Scout24): Germany's leading real estate platform, Scout24 operates a property portal model similar to LIFULL HOME'S, with core revenue from agent subscriptions and listings plus adjacent verticals in mortgage and moving services. Comparable in scale, portal-centric monetization, and adjacent-service expansion strategy.
Broad incumbents
- Zillow Group: Zillow is the largest US residential real estate portal with a broader portfolio of services (Premier Agent, Zillow Offers, mortgages) than LIFULL. While US-centric and operationally different, Zillow's portal-plus-adjacent-services playbook informs the strategic ceiling LIFULL could pursue.
- CoStar Group: CoStar is a global real estate information and analytics company operating Homes.com, Apartments.com, and LoopNet. While primarily focused on commercial real estate data, its residential portal push and data-licensing model provide a benchmark for B2B data monetization comparable to LIFULL's B2B analytics services.
Emerging players
- NoBroker: NoBroker is an India-based property platform that, like LIFULL, leverages technology and proprietary data to disintermediate traditional broker intermediation and improve listing accuracy. Useful as a comparable for tech-driven portal models in Asia-Pacific.
Regional players
- Yahoo! JAPAN Real Estate (LY Corporation): Yahoo! JAPAN's real estate vertical (operated by LY Corporation / formerly Z Holdings) competes for Japanese home-seeker search traffic with broad-portfolio consumer reach. Comparable as a Japanese property search destination but part of a much larger diversified consumer internet portfolio rather than a specialist.
Others
- Lifull Connect (Trovit): LIFULL Connect (formerly Trovit) is a wholly-owned LIFULL subsidiary operating a global property aggregation platform across 63 countries. As an in-house comparable, it illustrates the international aggregation angle of LIFULL's strategy and benchmarks cross-border listing monetization.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Lifull social profiles
Digital presenceLifull financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Lifull leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles11 records
Lifull subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries21 records
Lifull funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Lifull M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A4 records
Investments10 records
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Lifull
What does Lifull do?
LIFULL operates Japan's largest real estate and housing information marketplace under the LIFULL HOME'S brand, connecting home seekers with property listings from thousands of real estate agencies. The platform is free for consumers and monetized primarily through B2B subscription listing fees, advertising, and referral/consultation fees from real estate companies and management firms. The portfolio extends into senior care housing search, regional revitalization services, real estate crowdfunding, investment property portals, and prefabricated housing products.
Is Lifull a public or private company?
Lifull is a public company. It is classified as public and is currently operating.
When was Lifull founded?
Lifull was founded in 2009. It employs 1,001 to 5,000 people.
Where is Lifull based?
Lifull is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, in the Asia region.
How does Lifull make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Real Estate Listing Fees are the primary driver. The others are advertising Revenue, lead Generation / Consultation Services, premium Services for Real Estate Companies and home's Services Segment.
Who are Lifull's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Domain Holdings, Rightmove, SUUMO (Recruit Holdings), AtHome and Immobilienscout24 (Scout24). Broad incumbents are Zillow Group and CoStar Group. NoBroker is listed as an emerging player. Yahoo! JAPAN Real Estate (LY Corporation) is listed as a regional player. Lifull Connect (Trovit) is listed as an others.
Does Lifull have an API?
No public API is recorded for Lifull.
What industry is Lifull in?
Lifull's product category is Online Real Estate Marketplace. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAEAJAA, Residential Real Estate Brokerage (Buy/Sell), with a secondary code of BPAJAAAE, Residential Investment Property Brokerage (SFR/Small Multifamily). Its NAICS code is 5312 and its SIC code is 6531.