The chief executive of the company that owns realestate.com.au says Australia's property market is thriving amid anticipation of interest rate cuts.
"I think this is one of the healthiest markets I've seen in my time at REA, and it's because there are a lot of buyers and a lot of sellers," REA Group CEO Owen Wilson told analysts on Thursday.
"There's a lot of sellers, that means there's stock for the buyers to buy, and then they can sell their property.
"I think that's what you're seeing here. I think there's not a person in the country that thinks a rate rise is coming. It's just a matter of time of when we get our rate cut."
Australian listings were up five per cent year-on-year in the six months to December 31, with buyer enquiries growing four per cent and "inspection interactions" climbing 36 per cent, REA Group said.
The group's first-half revenue was up 20 per cent to $873 million, with its operating earnings climbing 22 per cent to $535 million.
Its statutory net profit after tax climbed 246 per cent to $441 million, driven by the sale of its 17.2 per cent stake in PropertyGuru, a property listing platform that operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
On a normalised basis, REA Group's net profit was up 26 per cent to $314 million.
E&P Capital analyst Entcho Raykovski said the results were slightly ahead of consensus expectations, with a solid start to the second half somewhat offset by guidance for higher operating expenses.
In January, property listings were up three per cent from a year ago, with listings in Sydney climbing five per cent and Melbourne dipping two per cent.
"Anecdotally, our market comes back straight after the Australia Day weekend," Mr Wilson said. "There's been a lot of listings come on since then."
Mr Wilson said that he expected listings to slow in April, with Easter and Anzac Day effectively falling on two weekends in a row.
"You don't want to be selling, particularly doing an auction, because everyone can be on holiday," he said.
If the federal election is held in May, that could also cause some temporary weakness as sellers won't want to sell around that time.
"Those listings won't be lost, they'll be deferred, either brought forward or pushed back," Mr Wilson said.
The REA chief also announced his retirement on Thursday after 10 years at the company, including six as CEO. Mr Wilson will remain with the business while a successor is chosen.
At 11.30am, REA shares were down 0.8 per cent to $249.88.
