REA Group has reported a 23% increase in revenue growth to $1.453 billion and a 27% leap in EBITDA to $825 million in its full-year results to 30 June 2024.

Announced today to the ASX, the financial highlights from core operations also included a 24% rise in net profit to $461 million. However, this was tempered by an impairment attributed to PropertyGuru, which brought reported net profit down 15% to $303m. Operating expenses were also up 18% to $628m.

Within the total group revenue figure, Australian revenues represented $1.35bn, up 22% year-on-year and excluding the acquisition of CampaignAgent. The local figures include residential and commercial sites realestate.com.au and realcommercial.com.au, data and insights business, PropTrack, and a leading mortgage broking business, Mortgage Choice.

REA Group Chief Executive Officer, Owen Wilson commented: "REA's exceptional result reflects the value we deliver at every stage of the property journey. In a strong market, particularly in Melbourne and Sydney, customers increasingly preferenced our premium products to leverage the strength of our audience and maximise their campaigns."

In Australia, residential revenue increased 24% to $996m. Buy revenue growth was driven by a 19% increase in Buy yield, a 7% increase in national listings and a modest negative impact from revenue deferral. REA also noted a 3% positive impact from geographical mix due to the outperformance of the higher yielding Sydney and Melbourne markets. Rent revenue increased with an 8% average price rise and growth in depth penetration, partly offset by a 1% decline in listings. Commercial and Developer revenue increased 12% to $159m. REA said commercial revenue growth was driven by an average 11% price rise, increased depth penetration and higher listings across both sale and lease. Developer revenues were up modestly on the prior year, with increased Project Profile duration and a price rise in the prior year offsetting the 13% decline in project commencements.

Media, Data and Other revenue was up 25% to $122m, or up 2% excluding the impact of the CampaignAgent acquisition. REA Group said growth in data revenue, driven by higher data and insights and valuations revenues, and modest growth in Developer Display, was partially offset by lower Media display in a softer advertising market. CampaignAgent, which has been consolidated from July 2023, has more than doubled revenue since acquisition, driven by customer growth and higher utilisation.

REA Group said its flagship site, realestate.com.au, extended its audience leadership in FY24, reinforcing its position as Australia's number one address in property, pointing to Ipsos iris Online Audience Measurement Service, Jul 2023 - Jun 2024 averages.

"Our highly personalised consumer experiences drive loyalty and strengthen the quality of our audience across each of our platforms. With a focus on deep member engagement, we extended our realestate.com.au audience leadership to 4.6 million Australians," Wilson commented. "Alongside healthy market conditions, this focus supported robust growth in both seller leads and buyer enquiries, increasing the value we delivered to our customers." Other key audience highlights for the year cited included 10.8 million people visited each month on average, with 5.7 million people exclusively using realestate.com.au.

There were additionally 127.2 million average monthly visits, 4.1 times more monthly visits in H2 than the nearest competitor on average; plus 3.8 million unique properties tracked by their owner on realestate.com.au1, up 37% YoY according to REA internal data comparing June 24. According to the company, 1.5 million people visited realcommercial.com.au each month on average, 2.4 times more visitors than the nearest competitor each month on average.

Elsewhere, REA India maintained its strong momentum with excellent revenue growth as customers increased usage of products, Wilson said. "We continued to benefit from investment in our app experience with significant app audience growth."

As part of the announcement, REA reaffirmed its acquisition of end-to-end property sales platform, Realtair for cash consideration of $34m on 18 June 2024. The Group initially invested in Realtair in December 2020 and held a 37% stake in the business prior to the acquisition of the remaining shares. Realtair streamlines the way agents connect with property owners. It has a suite of products that enable agents to create customisable digital listing presentations, digitally sign agreements and contracts in real time, and manage auction and private sale transactions. Realtair, which had been equity accounted since FY21, has been consolidated from 30 June 2024.

The acquisition is expected to be broadly EBITDA neutral in FY25. The Board has determined to pay a final dividend of 102 cents per share fully franked, up 23% YoY.

In its outlook, REA said Australia’s residential property market remains healthy. "Demand is strong nationally, supported by high levels of employment and immigration. Supply is also robust, with sellers confident in the level of demand and properties selling quickly with days on site well below the 6-year average," the statement read. "Interest rates are expected to stay at current levels until the first half of next calendar year and this stability, coupled with positive market fundamentals, should continue to support confidence."