By Stuart Condie

SYDNEY--Australian real-estate advertiser REA Group raised profit by 26% on year across Owen Wilson's final fiscal first-half as chief executive.

The ASX-listed classifieds provider on Thursday reported a core-operations net profit for the six months through December of 313.9 million Australian dollars, or about US$196.4 million. Revenue rose by 20% to A$872.9 million.

The profit was slightly short of the average analyst forecast of A$320.6 million off revenue of A$853.6 million, according to data compiled by Visible Alpha.

News Corp-controlled REA raised its interim dividend to A$1.10 from A$0.87 a year ago, compared with the A$1.14 expected by analysts.

Including one-off items such as impairments, statutory net profit surged to A$441.3 million from A$127.4 million.

Wilson will retire in the second half of the calendar year, REA said. The company has begun the process of identifying his successor and will consider internal and external candidates.

"Owen has shown extraordinary leadership in building a global success story at REA, which has become the gold standard for digital platforms," News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said.

Residential revenue from Australia rose by 21% on-year to A$614 million. Residential new buy listings rose by 5%, while yield growth rose 14% on price rises, increased depth penetration, and uptake of additional products.

REA's new residential listings were up 3% on year in January, the first month of its fiscal second half. On-year growth has slowed from 7% in the September quarter.

"Following sustained listings growth, the Australian property market has reached a more balanced level of supply and demand," Wilson said.

Expectations that the Reserve Bank of Australia is about to start cutting interest rates should help confidence in property markets, Wilson added. Softening inflation data published last month is widely expected by economists to prompt the RBA to lower rates this month.

Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 05, 2025 16:52 ET (21:52 GMT)

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