Portal giant REA Group posted typically strong performance in its Q3 2024 financial results posted this week.
Highlights include:
REA Group operates realestate.com.au, the clear market leader in Australia and one of the biggest portals in the world. Traffic to the site reached 130 million visits per month in Q3, with the Group claiming that 52% of users exclusively used realestate.com.au during their property search.
The Group's financial statements rarely surprise, and strong revenue and EBITDA growth YoY make for typical reading.
Owen Wilson, Group CEO, said:
"The Australian property market maintained its strong momentum during the quarter with seller confidence and healthy buyer demand driving activity. Australian consumers’ preference for our premium products and our focus on customer value delivered an exceptional result in this strong market."
The Australian Residential business had a strong quarter with revenue up 27%.
Mr Wilson said:
"Our comprehensive brand strategy covers the full property experience. We have continued to enhance consumer experiences across all platforms and this is delivering strong results with realestate.com.au, realcommercial.com.au and property.com.au each
achieving new audience highs in the quarter under Ipsos metrics."Our realestate.com.au membership strategy, centred on the delivery of highly personalised experiences, continues to further strengthen the quality of our audience while driving exceptional value for our customers with strong growth both in seller leads and buyer enquiries across the quarter."
Meanwhile, REA India achieved revenue growth of 31% YoY, driven by Indian market leader Housing.com's property advertising business and growth in adjacency services on the Housing Edge platform.
The Group recently found itself on the receiving end of a review from The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for entering a proposed acquisition—of digital forms platform Dynamic Methods—without disclosing it to the market.
For a closer look at REA Group's performance through the prism of Australia's vendor-paid advertising model, read this excellent analysis by Edmund.