There is no single official figure for how much of the luxury market trades off-market, and any guide that hands you one clean percentage is guessing. What is measurable: Compass reported that 35% of its listings were marketed privately before or instead of the MLS as of its fourth-quarter 2024 earnings call (Compass, Inc., Feb 2025). A 2026 industry study of five major US metros found the largest brokerage controlling 29.7% to 39.5% of unit sales, and representing both sides of the deal, double-ending, on 21% to 41% of its own transactions, highest in Washington, DC (Consumer Policy Center, April 2026).
And the National Association of Realtors, rather than force every listing back onto the open market, spent the past year building a formal exemption for sellers who want to stay off it. Off-market has stopped being a workaround. It is becoming standard practice at the top of the market.
What does "off-market" actually mean in luxury real estate?
It covers a spectrum, not one product: a "pocket listing" a broker holds privately and never submits anywhere, a "coming soon" flag ahead of a public debut, and a "private exclusive" shared only inside a brokerage's own network. What they share is the absence of the public step: no MLS syndication, no Zillow or Redfin listing, no address a stranger can search. It is one thread of a wider shift, see our full 2026 trends overview for the other five shaping the market.
The rulebook governing this in the US is the National Association of Realtors' Clear Cooperation Policy (CCP), adopted in 2020: once a listing broker markets a property publicly in any form, it must reach the MLS within one business day (NAR). CCP was built to stop brokers from quietly shopping listings to their own buyers before the wider market saw them. It did not end off-market deals. It drew the line a broker cannot cross once a property is shown to the public at all.
How much of the luxury market is actually trading off-market?
No major brand publishes a single, audited industry-wide number, and that gap is itself informative: Coldwell Banker Global Luxury, Christie's International Real Estate, Sotheby's International Realty, Douglas Elliman, and The Corcoran Group all release detailed annual luxury forecasts, and none of them puts a headline percentage on off-market share. The clearest data comes instead from the brokerage most built around it.
Compass, the largest US residential brokerage by transaction volume, disclosed that 35% of its roughly 22,000 listings carried a "Private Exclusive" or "Coming Soon" tag as of its Q4 2024 results (Compass, Inc., Feb 2025), and the company's own 2024 transaction data associated pre-marketing with a 2.9% higher final sale price, a claim Compass has not had independently audited (Compass, Inc., Feb 2025).
A separate April 2026 study of 5,000 recent sales across Boston, Washington DC, Chicago, San Diego, and Austin found Compass controlling 29.7% to 39.5% of unit sales in those metros, and representing both buyer and seller, double-ending, on 21% to 41% of its own deals, up from an industry baseline of roughly 3% to 12% a decade earlier (Consumer Policy Center, April 2026).
One honest caveat worth stating plainly: Redfin's macro figure, a rise in pocket listings from about 2.4% to 4.0% of all US sales since CCP took effect in 2020, covers every price tier, not luxury specifically (Redfin). Directionally the two data sets agree. The luxury-specific magnitude is Compass's own claim, not an independently audited industry average.
Why is the industry still fighting over the rules in 2026?
Because the money at stake is large enough that the fight has moved from trade-press opinion columns into federal court. The Supreme Court declined to review NAR's appeal in a Department of Justice antitrust matter touching CCP on January 13, 2025, allowing that investigation to continue (Real Estate News; Inman). NAR itself did not repeal Clear Cooperation. On March 25, 2025, it instead adopted "Multiple Listing Options for Sellers," a new rule letting a seller instruct their broker to delay public syndication under a documented "delayed marketing exempt listing" category, with local MLS organizations required to implement it by September 30, 2025 (NAR).
The most direct 2025-2026 flashpoint sits between the two largest names in residential real estate. Compass sued Zillow over its Listing Access Standards, which restrict how private listings surface on Zillow's platform; a four-day evidentiary hearing ran in the Southern District of New York in November 2025, the judge denied Compass's request for a preliminary injunction in February 2026, and Compass dropped the suit entirely on March 18, 2026 (RISMedia; Real Estate News; Inman). One month later, Northwest MLS filed counterclaims against Compass over its private-marketing strategy, calling the approach "Orwellian" in its own court filing (Inman, April 2026). The rulebook survived 2025 intact. Whether it survives the next round of litigation is genuinely unresolved.
Why do sellers, and buyers, choose to skip the public listing?
Because for a segment of this market, exposure itself is a cost, not a marketing benefit. Silicon Valley and finance-sector buyers increasingly route purchases through LLCs and privacy trusts and work exclusively through "whisper" listings that never touch the MLS, according to Ken DeLeon, founder of Palo Alto luxury brokerage DeLeon Realty, who described the anonymity as a security decision rather than a pricing strategy (Fortune, May 2026).
Brokers routinely act as the named party at inspections and vendor meetings so a principal's identity never has to appear on paper, and on the most sensitive deals, both sides can stay anonymous to each other through closing (Fortune, May 2026). The same instinct shows up in cross-border deals: capital relocating between jurisdictions, the subject of Brightwill's wealth-migration coverage, prizes that same anonymity for reasons that are as much about safety as tax planning.
The clearest recent proof of scale: media entrepreneur Len Blavatnik's purchase of Terry Semel's 8.5-acre oceanfront estate at 408 Further Lane in East Hampton for $115 million, closed off-market on July 31, 2025, reported as the most expensive single residential parcel ever sold in the Hamptons (The Real Deal, Dec 2025), the kind of genuinely scarce trophy asset that tends to change hands privately rather than compete for buyers in the open market. No open house, no public asking price, no days-on-market clock. That is the sale a public listing cannot produce, because the moment a property with that profile appears in a public search, its owner has already lost part of what they were paying for.
What does an off-market deal actually look like, step by step?
The mechanics differ from an open listing mainly in who sees the property and when. A broker with an off-market mandate shares it inside a private network, a brokerage's internal database, a small circle of cooperating agents, or a direct call to buyers already known to want that address. Pricing is set from private comparables and the broker's read of the market rather than tested in public through an open showing cycle and a visible days-on-market count.
An interested buyer negotiates directly with the seller's broker, often without a competing open-market bid to react to. Once terms are agreed, the transaction runs the same legal and closing process as any other sale, title, escrow, disclosures, recording. None of that discretion carries over to the paperwork itself.
What are the risks of skipping the public listing?
The two sides of this argument are both defensible, and a buyer or seller should hear both before choosing. Advocates of open marketing argue a smaller, invitation-only buyer pool structurally caps upward price pressure, since a property never gets tested against every possible bidder. Regulators are watching the same dynamic from a different angle: the DOJ's continuing antitrust inquiry and Northwest MLS's "Orwellian" counterclaim against Compass both treat concentrated private-listing control as a competition question (Inman, April 2026).
The rules also vary by market. A listing that qualifies cleanly for NAR's delayed-marketing exemption in one MLS jurisdiction can expose a broker to a compliance complaint in a stricter one. None of that makes off-market deals reckless. It means the seller's broker has to know the local rule, not assume the national one.
Off-market vs. public listing: how the two routes actually compare
| Factor | Off-market route | Public MLS/portal listing | The question to ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Privacy | Buyer, seller, price, and terms stay private | Address and list price become public search results | Does discretion outweigh reaching every possible buyer? |
| Price discovery | Set by broker comparables and direct negotiation | Tested openly; days-on-market becomes a visible signal | Would public exposure prove strength, or reveal weakness? |
| Buyer pool | Limited to a broker's network and direct referrals | Open to every buyer searching the MLS or a portal | Is the right buyer already inside a broker's circle? |
| Regulatory footing | Must fit NAR's delayed-marketing exemption, or sit entirely outside MLS cooperation | Governed cleanly by the Clear Cooperation Policy | Is the listing broker actually compliant in this MLS, or exposed? |
| Timeline | Can move in weeks, on the seller's own schedule | Runs on a public cadence: photography, showings, offer deadlines | Does the seller need speed and control, or maximum exposure? |
The bottom line
No credible source will hand you a single audited percentage for how much of the luxury market trades off-market, and Brightwill will not invent one either. What is verifiable is the direction: Compass's own private-listing share, a 2026 study's double-digit double-ending rates in five metros, and NAR's decision to build a formal carve-out rather than fight the trend all point the same way. Discretion at the top of the market is no longer an exception brokers apologize for. It is a route buyers and sellers choose deliberately, for reasons that have little to do with price and everything to do with who gets to see the transaction at all.
The Brightwill view
We treat "off-market" as a tool, not a virtue in itself. A private sale protects a seller's privacy and a buyer's anonymity, it does not automatically protect the price, and a buyer who never sees a comparable open-market data point has to trust their advisory team's read of value more, not less. Some addresses make the case for discretion on their own. The Residences at Six Fisher Island, reachable only by private ferry or helicopter with no public road connecting the island to the mainland, is one of a handful of US addresses where privacy is engineered into the geography before a single listing decision gets made.
Brightwill Luxury is a curated access platform, not a brokerage, and we do not run our own private-listing network. Where a client is weighing a discreet purchase or sale, we work with counsel and advisers who represent that client, not the other side of the table, and we price any off-market opportunity against real public comparables before recommending it.
Discuss a discreet acquisition or sale with our advisory team →
Brightwill Luxury is a curated access platform, not a brokerage, law firm, or financial adviser. Off-market practices, MLS cooperation rules, and their legal status vary by market and continue to change through ongoing litigation; confirm the current rules in your jurisdiction with licensed counsel before any commitment.
BUYER QUESTIONS
Frequently Asked Questions
Buyer questions answered by Brightwill Luxury, the discovery platform connecting buyers with vetted luxury listings worldwide.
No audited figure exists for the luxury tier specifically. Compass, the largest US brokerage, put the share of its own listings under a private or 'coming soon' status at 35% when it reported Q4 2024 (Compass, Inc., Feb 2025). Separately, a 2026 five-metro study found that one brokerage accounted for between 29.7% and 39.5% of unit sales in those markets, while sitting on both sides of 21% to 41% of the deals it handled (Consumer Policy Center, April 2026). Both are direction, not an industry average, since brands such as Christie's and Sotheby's International Realty release no comparable figure.
A property a listing broker holds and markets privately, sometimes only to their own buyers, without submitting it to the MLS or any public portal. It is one form of off-market activity alongside "coming soon" flags and brokerage-only "private exclusives," distinguished mainly by how narrowly the property is shared before any public step.
Yes, with conditions. NAR's Clear Cooperation Policy requires any publicly marketed listing to reach the MLS within one business day, but a property never marketed publicly at all is not bound by that rule (NAR). Since March 2025, NAR's "Multiple Listing Options for Sellers" policy also lets a seller formally instruct their broker to delay public marketing under a documented exemption, implemented across local MLS organizations by September 30, 2025 (NAR).
Privacy and control, more often than price. Sellers avoid a public price anchor, unlimited stranger showings, and the stigma a listing accumulates the longer it sits with a visible days-on-market count. Some buyers and sellers also route deals through LLCs or trusts specifically to keep their identity off public record, a pattern luxury brokers describe as increasingly common among finance and technology-sector principals (Fortune, May 2026).
Sometimes, but the evidence is contested rather than settled. Open-marketing advocates argue that a small, invitation-only pool of buyers holds down price by design, because the home never faces the full field of bidders. Compass, on the other side, has released its own numbers tying pre-marketing to a somewhat higher final sale price, though it has never put that claim through an independent audit (Compass, Inc., Feb 2025). Either way, treat both positions as argument from an interested party rather than neutral research.
A National Association of Realtors rule, adopted in 2020, requiring a listing broker to submit any property to the MLS within one business day of marketing it publicly in any form (NAR). It remains in force in 2026. NAR has faced continuing Department of Justice antitrust scrutiny over it, and in March 2025 added a formal delayed-marketing exemption rather than repeal the policy outright.
Almost entirely through relationships: a broker's private network, referrals from other advisers, or direct outreach to owners of addresses a buyer has already identified. There is no public search for a true pocket listing by definition, which is why buyers pursuing discretion typically work with an advisory team whose broker relationships reach further than any portal search would.
