Japanese Portal Operator Lifull Sees Revenue Rise as it Consolidates FazWaz and Lamudi

The Japanese real estate portal and aggregator operator Lifull has released a report on its activities and performance for the second quarter of its financial year. Highlights of a period in which the company said that results were "progressing in line with forecasts" include:

• The average revenue per agent in Japan was up 7% at JPY 71k ($529).
• Company revenue was up 21% year-on-year at JPY 11,585 million ($86 million).
• Net profit of JPY 593 million ($4.4 million).

Lifull operates the Homes.co.jp portal domestically as well as international aggregators Mitula, Trovit and Nestoria which together with portal assets such as dotproperty, Hipflat, LaEncontré, and Properati form its Lifull Connect overseas segment.

Domestically Lifull managed to increase profits largely thanks to a reduced branding spend which decreased -57% year-on-year. The company also benefitted from a 15.5% increase in listings volumes in Japan from October to March.

Lifull has been leaning heavily into virtual and augmented reality technology as it follows a similar tactic to U.S. giant Zillow in trying to create an all-in-one 'hyper super assistant app' for Japanese property seekers. The company is now looking to integrate AI into the mix and has appointed CTO Tsubasa Nagasawa to the newly created role of Head of LIFULL HOME'S Generative AI Product Development.

Elsewhere, the company's Overseas segment saw the revenues from its newly acquired Thai brokerage business FazWaz consolidated into results for the first time. The company remarked that FazWaz has been exceeding its expectations since it was purchased for an undisclosed sum in February.

Lifull's Overseas segment also saw the consolidation of the Mexican real estate portal Lamudi which was acquired in March. According to Lifull, Lamudi Mexico generated JPY 0.77 billion ($5.7 million) in revenue in 2022 and has more than 6,000 agent clients.