REA group Q1 2025: Revenues of A$413m, up 21% YoY, In Strong Start for Australian Giant

REA Group, the ASX-listed, Murdoch-backed marketplace giant, has released typically strong financial results for the first quarter of Australia's financial year for 2025.

Highlights include:

• Revenues of A$413m (USD 272 million), up 21% year-on-year
• EBITDA of A$256 million (USD 155.5 million), up 23% YoY
• Australian Residential business sees revenues grow 23%
• 132.4 million web visits per month for the quarter, while 6.2 million people exclusively use realestate.com.au
• REA India revenues were up 42% YoY

REA Group operates Australia's leading property marketplace, realestate.com.au, and REA India, which includes Housing.com and PropTiger.

As is typical, realestate.com.au delivered the bulk of strong financial performance in the first quarter of the year, with significant growth over Q1 2024:

Realestate.com.au also attracted a shade over 132 million visits per month for the quarter, with the Group saying this number was four times more visits than nearest rival Domain.

Residential revenue in Australia increased 20%, driven by yield and listings growth and an annual 15% price increase

Owen Wilson, CEO at REA Group, said:

"Seller confidence continued to drive a strong listings environment in Q1, delivering greater choice for buyers and some moderation in house price growth. In this healthy market, we hit new audience records and our customers increasingly leveraged the value of our premium products to differentiate their properties. This underpinned the strength of our financial performance.

"In the strong listings environment, Australians turned to our leading platform in record numbers. Our loyal and highly engaged consumers continued to embrace our personalised experiences, widening the audience gap between realestate.com.au and our nearest competitor to a record 5.3 million people. Our unique consumer experiences and the strength of the market supported the increasing value delivered to customers with exceptional year-on-year growth in the number of seller leads."

Meanwhile, REA India’s revenue was up 42% YoY, driven by strong growth in adjacency services on the Housing Edge platform, and continued momentum at Housing.com.

The Group said "Housing.com benefitted from strong events, yield growth and improved monetisation in Tier 2 cities. PropTiger revenues declined reflecting reduced volume of stock and lower commission rates in the strong property market."

Other highlights from the quarter include REA Group's agreement to divest from PropertyGuru, with REA Group's 17.2% stake in the business up for grabs by EQT, which has agreed to wholly acquire the Singapore-based market leader.

"PropertyGuru has stated that the transaction is expected to close in Q2 or Q3 in FY25", commented REA Group.

Meanwhile, REA Group also increased its stake in Athena Home Loans, which it already holds a 19.9% stake in.

REA Group recently failed in a takeover proposal for Rightmove after seeing four bids rejected by the British market leader in September 2024. Shares took a tumble when the market learned of REA's interest in Rightmove, but this was swiftly forgotten and shares have now soared to a record high of A$239.14 (USD 157.58) as of November 11, 2024.