Dust is settling over a housing market racked with uncertainty since the federal budget, according to the owner of Australia’s biggest real estate platform.
Falling property prices have not weighed on realestate.com.au parent REA Group after the company reported a bumper year that beat its own grim expectations.
The News Corp-owned listings giant’s underlying earnings jumped 12 per cent in the year to June 30, ticking up to $1.2 billion.
“The market is still recalibrating post-budget,” REA chief executive Cameron McIntyre told an earnings briefing on Thursday.
“But once the dust settles and interest rates stabilise, we expect consumer confidence to improve and buyers to become more active.”
It also set an engagement record, welcoming more than 146 million visitors to its platforms over the same period, up 11 per cent.
Surprisingly the number of people putting properties up for sale on the platform stayed flat across the 2025/26 financial year.
That beat the group’s expectations of a one to three per cent slump in a prediction that sent its share price tumbling back in February.
Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide led the charge to save REA’s listings in the three months to June 30, putting 17 per cent more properties up for sale than the year before to drive the group’s fourth-quarter listings up 11 per cent nationwide.
Melbourne and Sydney were a good deal behind at 8 per cent listings growth over those three months, but the unexpected statistic buoyed the group’s bosses.
“Listings are holding up well, but as we know, given the historical volatile month, quarter to quarter, it’s it’s probably a little bit early to to try and think too much about phasing,” Mr McIntyre said.
Falls in listings have lagged demand drop in the housing market since May’s federal budget, according to real estate research group Cotality.
But rising interest rates were more to blame for property market woes than the removal of tax concessions for investors, REA said.
“Interest rates … are the biggest factor contributing to current market uncertainty at the moment,” Mr McIntyre said.
“It’s likely that we’re at or near the peak of the interest rate cycle.”
The Reserve Bank is tipped to hold interest rates steady at 4.35 per cent when it meets on August 11, even with inflation and the jobs market softening faster than expected.
They’re unlikely to start winding down until May 2027, according to the Commonwealth Bank.
For REA Group’s part, after offloading its struggling business in India, net profit across its remaining divisions was up 14 per cent to $682 million in the year to June 30.
Having plummeted 30 per cent in the prior 12 months, investors leapt on the REA’s stock when trading opened after Thursday’s earnings call, sending it up 2.4 per cent to $170.32 – its highest price since mid-May.
Australian Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national newswire and has been delivering accurate, reliable and fast news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We keep Australia informed.
