An important exploration of RESO’s global growth was published this week by Real Estate News. Its headline touted the first European MLS to be certified on RESO standards. In reiterating that story, let’s dive deeper into the international growth of RESO’s effects on marketplaces and the global vision for open standards.
Paris as a Beacon of Light
France’s premier real estate association, the Syndicat National des Professionnels Immobiliers (SNPI), became the first Multiple Listing Service (MLS) in Europe to be fully certified on the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) Data Dictionary 2.0 and Web API 2.0.0 standards.
Representing nearly 15,000 member organizations working as agents, property managers, trustees and negotiators, SNPI’s certification establishes the organization as a data powerhouse in the international marketplace.
“This RESO certification is a pivotal achievement for the SNPI and European real estate,” said SNPI President Alain Duffoux. “Our adoption of the RESO standards underscores our dedication to technological excellence and our ongoing commitment to enhancing professionalism within the global real estate community.”
The SNPI MLS’s 120,000 active listings will now be available in a format that is translatable to any language and accessible via a standardized API in any market in which SNPI chooses to do business through the RealtyFeed platform. It is a remarkable achievement on its own and a symbol of the broad growth in demand for global real estate data standards.
Why Global Standards Matter
Open standards that cross borders are everywhere. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, PDF and USB are just a few examples of open standards that people use in their day-to-day business to interact with others. They provide a transparent set of rules for the parties to operate within, and they increase the trust and efficiency of transactions.
Real estate professionals need the same efficiency. RESO’s standards make this possible for real estate technology everywhere. The Data Dictionary defines common data field names and types, allowing real estate companies to format their information in a way that anyone can consume. The Web API provides a consistent way for data collaborators to request and respond to data transport needs. Unique identifiers provide an objective way for all parties to classify organizations, properties and professionals in a common manner.
RESO Global Member Organizations
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Building technology that serves organizations across multiple countries requires understanding cross-border commerce. Technology companies aggregate property records with different local, legal, governmental and language requirements. It’s an immense task. Standards are the universal language that allow these disparate practices of property transactions to be aligned across borders.
International Leaders Voice Support
The increasing demand for global participation in standards is evidenced by the growth of the International MLS Forum. This event is organized by RESO and the European Association of Real Estate Professions (CEPI), along with industry partners like the Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS), the National Association of REALTORS® NAR Global and FIABCI, the International Real Estate Federation.
Participants from more than 30 countries were present in Paris for the first forum in 2023, with property professionals, MLS executives, technology vendors, law firms and government representatives presenting the opportunities and challenges in their markets. At the 2024 forum in Milan, more than 50 countries sent representatives to the event, including many U.S. organizations expanding their reach overseas.
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An even greater impact is expected – as the North American crowd joins in larger ranks – when the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) hosts the forum in September 2025. The forum will gain access to a broader reach within countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council, Southeast Asia and North African regions when Advanced Real Estate Services (ADRES) hosts the forum in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) in 2026.
With RESO’s original membership base built up over many years in the U.S., MLS coverage is significant, with 93 percent of the approximately 500 MLSs in the U.S. already certified on RESO standards. These MLSs have brokers who work with international customers that buy property domestically and with domestic customers that buy property internationally.
As global connections have strengthened, demand for standards has driven RESO’s membership to expand to organizations in more than 30 countries, crossing six continents. These companies are building brokerage, consumer, MLS and government-related technologies based on the universal language of standards. | REGISTER FOR THE FORUM
RESO’s Global Partners
As certified American organizations continue to modernize their systems to adopt to ever-evolving standards, the opportunities to grow the resources of RESO’s member base and increase cross-border commerce is clear. Working with the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), RESO is helping MLSs and technology organizations across Canada move from the traditional National Data Standard (NDS) to RESO’s global standards in order to help them scale data relationships into new markets.
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Across the Atlantic, CEPI represents more than 30 national and regional trade associations. In addition to organizing the International MLS Forum with RESO, the organizations have also coordinated on reporting about the state of real estate professions in different countries. CEPI members are working with RESO members to implement new MLS systems. In particular, Stellar MLS and its subsidiary, Universal Consulting Opportunities, are guiding MLS organizations on go-to-market strategies to succeed according to the unique needs of each market.
In Latin America, RESO members are adapting MLS and brokerage systems to support the local idiosyncrasies and language differences that every local market has. While North American markets often have a top-down MLS style for listings and Association Management System (AMS) roster data, many Latin American countries have a bottom-up approach that sources data through broker and agent Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. RESO standards empower the data sets to be aggregated and distributed efficiently to all stakeholders in local real estate transactions.
In Asia, while some MLSs are being built and funded privately by businesses and associations, others are driven entirely through government initiatives, particularly in the Middle East. And in India, the national trade organization, which represents 2.5 million professionals across 40+ associations, is partnering with RESO as joint members to help develop an MLS system for its vast membership.
In Africa, RESO is connecting with real estate associations and technology vendors building the first MLSs for the continent. RESO’s benefits have been shared with a wide array of organizations through joint messaging with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World and the African Real Estate Conference and Expo.
Business Sense
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RESO’s global growth is a benefit to its traditional members in financial and functional ways. Growth initiatives don’t always have to create immediate revenue, but RESO’s global efforts are already profitable. While the majority of RESO’s resources are still spent on the 500 MLS organizations in the U.S., for every $1 RESO spends on international initiatives, it brings in $10 in international revenue from membership, event registrations and sponsorships. And member organizations are reaping the benefits of these new global relationships through partnerships in consulting, education, technology development, data shares and referral collaborations.
So while there are some organizations in real estate that limit their scope to their immediate locale, RESO, at its core, was built to expand. A technical standards body succeeds at an accelerated rate through network effects, and that requires growth. That’s why the RESO Board of Directors so presciently made global growth a top priority for the organization in 2024, just as RESO certification of American MLSs began nearing ubiquity.
And the timing couldn’t have been better, as the emergence of MLS efforts across the world has been accelerating in that time. New MLSs in the Czech Republic, Romania, Türkiye, Egypt, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, the U.A.E. and elsewhere across the globe are seeing that data standards can be the foundation for the trusted marketplaces that their communities need.
Looking Forward
Technology never stops changing, and the long-term commitment of RESO member organizations is key to the continued growth of the value of real estate standards. As more capabilities continue to be built out for supporting different languages, currencies, measurements, unique local features and legal requirements, experts from different regions of the world are needed to serve as subject matter experts at RESO. And international members continue to find ways to improve parts of the standards that already exist today.
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Technology is global, and the global markets are demanding the access to innovation, speedy development and trusted information that standards provide. Industry leaders are invited to join the International MLS Forum to engage with potential business partners from all over the world. From Chicago to Paris, Milan to Toronto, and Abu Dhabi to wherever the next marketplace emerges to serve its communities with innovative real estate technology, RESO offers its support in growing global real estate standards.
We look forward to driving real estate technology leadership forward with you in Toronto this fall.
