News

REA Group revenue up as Australian property prices sit at record highs

News Corp’s REA Group has announced its financial results for the quarter ending March, with the numbers reflecting the strong recovery of the Australian residential property market.

In Q3 of FY21, REA Group revenue (excluding acquisitions) rose by 8% to $225.6 million, while Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) including share of profit/losses from associates grew by 13% year-on-year to hit $123.3 million.  REA Group’s assets include leading Australian real estate listing website realestate.com.au.

REA Group Results Q3 FY21 [click to enlarge]

REA Group chief executive officer, Owen Wilson, said: “Australia’s property market is in full flight, with this positive momentum contributing to strong growth for the quarter.”

The financial report also included results for the nine months that ended 31 March. In that time, revenue was $655.9 million, a 1% increase year-on-year excluding acquisitions. Meanwhile, EBITDA for the same period was up 10% to $415.1 million.

REA broke down results for the wider Australian residential property market for the quarter ending March. National listings were up 8% for the quarter, with Sydney up 5% and Melbourne up 13%.

Audience highlights for realestate.com.au included 12.5 million monthly average visitors, hitting a record 13.5 million in the month of March.

There were also a record number of app downloads in March (10.8 million).

Wilson added: “Once again, realestate.com.au set new audience records and delivered over 3 million buyer enquiries per month, an increase of 82% for the quarter.”

Looking at the month of April, low interest rates and improving consumer confidence continued to increase national residential listings (up 98% year-on-year), but REA admitted these figures are inflated by COVID related declines the year prior.

REA Group CEO Owen Wilson

Wilson said he expects core operating costs for FY21 to increase slightly on FY20. “Conditions are aligned for the Australian property market to continue its positive trajectory for the remainder of 2021.”

REA Group also revealed it remains intent on acquiring 100% of the shares in Mortgage Choice Limited, a purchase which REA said “aligns with REA’s financial services strategy by leveraging the Group’s digital expertise, high intent property seeker audience and data insights across a larger network”.

The transaction will be funded by an increase in REA’s syndicated debt facilities, with its existing $170 million facility to be refinanced for this purpose.

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