REA revenues up 16% despite decline in listing volumes
REA Group, the global online real estate advertising company and parent group of realestate.com.au, has announced its half-year financial metrics, revealing revenue of $337 million and continued dominance over its competition.
In its presentation to investors, REA Group revealed the figure (from core operations, excluding non-recurring items such as discontinued operations and revaluation and unwind of deferred consideration), also noting EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) was up 13% to $200 million.
The revenue growth was attributed to a 13% increase in the Australian residential business and the inclusion of iProperty revenue, which was not included in the prior comparative period.
REA chief executive officer, Tracey Fellows, said in the presentation the group’s real estate portal, realestate.com.au, was the clear market leader with more than twice the visits of its nearest competitor, Domain.
This market-leading position is based on Nielsen Online Market Intelligence Home and Fashion Suite for the half-year ended December 3, 2016, excluding apps, which shows realestate.com.au commands an average monthly audience of 47.9 million, compared with Domain’s 20.1 million.
In addition, realestate.com.au claims an average monthly total time on site of 254.2 minutes, compared with Domain’s 33.2 minutes.
In a statement, Fellows highlighted the success of the media side of REA’s operations.
“Our media and other business recorded 14% revenue growth due to continued innovation of media display products and the inclusion of flatmates.com.au revenues. This was in a market where advertising revenues for content sites fell 1%,” she said.
Fellows: “Our media and other business recorded 14% revenue growth”
In the investor presentation, CFO Owen Wilson noted the group’s success despite challenging market conditions.
“Realestate.com.au had continued improvement in premium listing mix and growth in premium listing products despite a decline in listing volumes in the Australian market.”
The group revealed the three components for ongoing strategic growth would be: property advertising; property-related services; and global, noting the Asian opportunity is as “compelling as it’s ever been”.
REA’s focus on Australia, Asia and North America was solidified late last year when the group announced it was selling out of Europe to focus on these markets. The group also recently announced an investment in PropTiger in India.
REA Group also announced a half-year dividend of 40 cents, an increase of 11%.
Oh Really.
Proudly reporting that “realestate.com.au commands an average monthly audience of 47.9 million, compared with Domain’s 20.1 million.”
So they REALLY think that every month, on average, their website’s audience is twice Australia’s population. Stunning that no-one know that is an impossible load of old bollocks.
Just shows why Mark Ritson’s points are well made.
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wow 47.9 million! its almost like they’re counting people who look at their websites based in europe and asia…. do you REALLY think that everything is just about Australia?
Ritson says digital/social marketing is overhyped and should only be part of a marketing strategy. Relevance?
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REA’s audience may be twice that of Domain’s, but their engagement level is 8 times higher. The only reason people go to Domain is because they spend more than they earn on social media placements which people ‘graze’ on… this gives their traffic numbers a bump and makes them look legitimate. But when it comes to users actively searching for real estate, these users trust RealEstate.com.au – not Domain. The proof is in the enquiry rate. REA will outperform Domain 800% on enquiries. It leaves Domain in the dust.
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