Swedish Market Leader Hemnet Releases Q4 Results

The market-leading Swedish real estate portal company Hemnet has released a report of its Q4 activities showing healthy year-on-year growth for a company that went public on the Swedish NASDAQ last year. Highlights of Hemnet's report include:

• Net sales up 24% for the quarter and 33% on the year
• Operating profit up 175% on the quarter and 102% on the year
• The average revenue per listing (ARPL) was up 45% on the quarter

Aside from floating on the public market in April 2021, Hemnet's financial year has included the launch of a new pricing model for its basic listings product (Hemnet Bas) as well as a change to the compensation to agents that promote it. This change and a marketing push for the portal's value-added packages were referenced by company CEO Cecilia Beck-Friis in a statement accompanying today's report:

"...we are summing up the busiest and most successful year in the company’s history. We have kept a high pace in development throughout the year with many important changes when it comes to products, packaging and pricing. On the back of strong customer demand from both consumers and business partners, we have exceeded our full-year financial growth target and increased our profitability to be in line with our financial profitability target. We are starting the new year with great confidence that we will keep this momentum as we continue to scale and develop our business.

"Over the past year we have seen our value-added products growing in popularity and during the fourth quarter more than one third of home sellers upgraded their listing to Hemnet Plus or Hemnet Premium, the corresponding share for the same period 2020 was 20 percent. Looking at the fourth quarter, revenues from value-added services for property sellers almost doubled compared to the same quarter last year."

The Swedish real estate market operates along Australian lines whereby vendors themselves rather than agents pay the portal directly for listing packages. Hemnet believes that this system gives it a significant advantage in the market as vendors are more motivated to invest in marketing to maximise the sale price and to recognise and trust the leading brand.

Hemnet's stock price has been somewhat choppy since its debut on the market, initially surging up from its IPO price of SEK 115 to SEK 172 before going on to highs of SEK 250 in June. Since then the price has been in decline and today's results have so far seen the price drop around 13% (at the time of writing the price was SEK 145, down from a previous close at SEK 170).