Rent.com.au Edges Closer to Profitability and App Launch According to Quarterly Report

The Australian rental specialist property portal Rent.com.au has released a report for Q1 of FY21 which shows improvement across the board and details the progress the company is making towards the release of its flagship rent payments application RentPay. Quarterly revenue was up to $734k representing a 27% year-on-year gain, and EBITDA was improved by 55% on a quarterly year-on-year basis.

These gains in financial metrics, although not enough to see the company enjoying positive EBITDA for the quarter have come at a time of significant investment in Rent.com.au's RentPay product which according to CEO Greg Bader is on track:

“Development of RentPay has continued in line with our anticipated timeline and we’re confident we will meet our launch timing in the next quarter."

Rent.com.au has bet big on becoming a true end-to-end service over recent years. Apart from the RentPay product, which saw a prototype version of its application submitted to the Apple Store this month, the company also offers services to landlords and tenants which include tenant referencing, pet passports, a utility connection service and a move now-pay later service.

Away from its tertiary services, the company's core listings advertising product saw its second profitable quarter as Rent capitalised on record sales in October by "extending advertising agreements beyond single monthly campaigns to quarterly or even annual 'always on' agreements". Despite Bader admitting that the company's primary focus would be on RentPay in the near future, the company believes that there is more to come from its advertising product.

The full report is available as a pdf here.