The story behind 20 years of Pararius
Pararius began in 2006 in a basement space at Sarphatipark in Amsterdam. Founder Jasper de Groot saw a rental market that was fragmented online. Rental properties were hard to find and rental agents had nowhere decent to list their offerings. That had to change. And it did.
Today, Pararius is the largest independent housing website in the Netherlands. More than 2.5 million home seekers visit our platform every month. Over 2,500 rental agents list their properties with us. Each year, more than 70,000 people find a home through Pararius.
About the name: Pararius is Latin for 'intermediary.' The Dutch word paraat (meaning "ready") is derived from it, and that's exactly what we aim to be for tenants and landlords. Investors had their doubts at the time. A difficult name for such an easy site, we often heard. Today, Pararius is a household name.
How we got here
Pararius didn't grow big from behind a desk. In the early years, Jasper himself drove all across the Netherlands, from Groningen to Maastricht, to personally sign up rental agents. With every agent he spoke to, he asked who the competitors in the region were. That same day, he'd be on their doorstep. Opening doors was our tagline back then for good reason.
We did everything ourselves. We manually copied photos and texts from agents' websites to onboard new clients. Pure growth hacking, before that was even a word. Our first developer was occasionally paid with a dining table or new window frames. And whenever an inquiry came in, Jasper would immediately call the agent: "Hey, there's someone from Shell in your system who wants to rent your property!"
To generate traffic for our agents from day one, an investment was needed. Jasper's reasoning: better a small slice of a big pie than a big slice of a small one. A click via Google AdWords cost just a few cents back then, and we advertised in six languages right away. As a result, we quickly secured long-standing top rankings for international search queries, which gave us time to work on organic growth. It's a chicken-and-egg story: more listings means better findability, and better findability attracts more listings.
At the same time, we formed partnerships with property-for-sale sites that didn't yet have a rental section, such as De Telegraaf's Woonkrant and Marktplaats. We shared our listings, they linked back to Pararius. That's how we grew without having to keep paying for traffic.
20 years in numbers
- 2,500+ affiliated rental agents
- None of our first 41 agents have ever left; 32 are still clients and the other 9 no longer exist in the same form
- 70,000+ people find a home through Pararius each year
- 2.5 million monthly visitors
- 6 languages
- 70 employees
The team behind the platform
Pararius was built by people who believed things had to be done differently. Jasper de Groot started out as a young rental agent. In 2012, we acquired a software company, which is now delivered as Pararius Office to more than 500 rental agents. In 2017, we merged with Huurwoningen.nl. Since then, Jasper has led TreeHouse together with Rogier Alkemade (founder of Huurwoningen.nl). Under that umbrella, there are now seven brands, including Realstats (housing market data for governments, investors, and agents) and Leadflow (process efficiency for agents dealing with overwhelming tenant demand). We are also active in England with Rentaroof.co.uk, in France with Toitpourtoi.fr, and soon in Germany with Immomiet.de.
On the 21st and 22nd floors, at the corner of Blaak and Coolsingel in Rotterdam, a team of around 70 developers, marketers, customer success staff, and account managers works on our platforms.
You can't execute a strategy without a culture. We believed that in the basement, and we still do. We regularly have lunch out, share drinks together on Fridays, and our board game nights can get pretty competitive. And then there are the workations: twice, half the team worked for a month from two beach houses in Valencia. Pool, sun, and just your laptop alongside.
On to the next 20
Twenty years ago, we made the rental market findable. Today, we work for tenants, buyers, agents, governments, and real estate professionals throughout the Netherlands. And beyond.
Of all the housing platforms that have come and gone over those twenty years, we're the only one still standing. We're proud of that. But it's just as much the story of the thousands of agents who trust us and the millions of home seekers we help along the way.
We stand ready. Just like twenty years ago.