REA Group leaders say housing markets currently flattened by lockdowns can recover quickly, as seen by an improved full-year profit and dividend.
The realestate.com.au owner on Friday revealed Sydney property listings for July were down 22 per cent due to the ongoing coronavirus lockdown.
There may be fewer listings in southeast Queensland and Victoria too, where there are also stay-at-home orders.
Yet REA said low interest rates and good bank liquidity ensured housing markets recovered quickly when lockdowns ended.
The company raised the price of its services for house hunters and others last month. This will also help earnings.
The News Corp-owned company's sales in the past financial year improved by 13 per cent to $928 million. This was despite a big drop in listings in Melbourne in the first-quarter due to a prolonged lockdown.
The sales increase contributed to full-year net profit after tax climbing by 18 per cent to $318 million.
The earnings include the ramifications of the purchases of broker Mortgage Choice in March, and Elara Technologies.
The latter owns websites in China, Hong Kong and India.
REA Group also owns property websites in other Asian nations and the US. However the bulk of its earnings come from Australia.
Investors will receive a fully franked final dividend of 72 cents per share. This is higher than the equivalent payout from last year of 55 cents per share.
The full-year dividend was 19 per cent higher on the previous one.
However the payout and earnings did not meet shareholders' expectations.
Shares were down 5.95 per cent to $157.32 at 1410 AEST.
Australian Associated Press
