REA Group, owner of realestate.com.au, PropTrack, and broker network Mortgage Choice, has reported a revenue growth of 1% to $1,183 million, a 3% decrease in EBITDA (excluding associates) to $651m, and a 9% drop in net profit to $372m for the year ended June 30, amidst challenging market conditions.
In Australia, the group’s core revenue declined by 1% on prior year to $1,104m, with yield growth across its advertising products being more than offset by the challenging market and very strong prior-year comparatives.
The group’s operating costs increased by 7%, with the operating cost growth in Australia restricted to 1%, after tight management of employee costs and lower marketing spend.
“Our year-on-year performance reflects the comparatively very strong listings environment in 2022,” said Owen Wilson (pictured above), REA Group CEO. “Despite the significantly lower listings in FY23, REA Group’s result demonstrates the strength and resilience of our business as customers continued to prioritise our premium products, leading platforms, and superior audience.
REA Group’s flagship site, realestate.com.au, has maintained its leadership as Australia’s number-one address in property, visited by an average 120.6 million monthly, which was 3.3 times more visits than the nearest competitor each month.
“The size and quality of our audience provides REA customers with unrivalled value, and we further strengthened this proposition in FY23 with strong growth in the number of active members,” Wilson said.
“The delivery of more personalised experiences is central to this growth and is rapidly increasing the depth and frequency of audience engagement. This demonstrates both the growing value consumers are placing on access to high quality information, and the underlying strength of demand in the property market.”
REA Group acquired full ownership of CampaignAgent in July, for a cash consideration of $39m, after the group’s initial acquisition of 27% of the business in 2021. The fintech company specialising in property vendor funding solutions, which has been equity accounted since 2021, will be consolidated from July, REA Group said.
REA Group has declared a final dividend of 83 cents per share fully franked, which together with the interim dividend announced in February, represented a total final dividend of 158 cents per share fully franked in respect of the 2023 financial year, down 4% on the prior year.
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