Online real estate advertiser REA Group says more people are taking up mobile apps to access information on real estate.
REA Group on Wednesday booked a 25% increase in half year net profit to $51.6 million.
The company said its suite of upgraded advertising products had shown resilience in the current property cycle and were key growth drivers for the group.
REA Group said its property websites – realestate.com.au, realcommercial.com.au and property.com.au – accounted for an average of 75% of the total minutes that Australians spent on property sites.
The sites attracted average monthly visits of 19.4 million during the first half.
“In addition to growth in desktop visits, our mobile sites and apps recorded exponential growth,” REA Group said in a statement.
“Average monthly visits to realestate.com.au and realcommercial.com.au mobile sites grew by 23% on June 2012 and 88 per cent on December 2011.
“Downloads of realestate.com.au and realcommercial.com.au mobile apps have now exceeded 1.7 million.”
REA also serves the developer and display media markets through REA Media.
The group also has international operations, including the residential property site, casa.it, in Italy and property sites in Luxembourg, France, Germany and Hong Kong.
Italy’s casa.it lifted revenue by 24% to $11.9 million despite challenging local market conditions.
Average monthly visits to casa.it in the first half rose by 24% to 7.1 million.
REA said its property listings across the group totalled 1.6 million at December 31, which it said was consistent with the listings one year earlier.
The number of visits to the group’s websites increased on average per month during the first half by 27% to 37 million visits.
REA Group’s revenue for the six months to December 31, 2012 grew by 20% to $161.4 million.
The company declared an interim dividend of 16 cents per share, fully franked, up 28% on the dividend of 12.5 cents per share in the prior corresponding period.
Shares in REA Group were 50 cents higher at $21.50 at 1436 AEDT on Tuesday.
