Property website’s listings fall, shares tumble

Derek Rose | February 6, 2026

Shares in the company that owns Australia’s most popular property website have tumbled after warning listings could fall by as much as three per cent this financial year.

Realestate.com.au owner REA Group said on Friday that national buy listings were down six per cent in the first half and predicted a decline of one to three per cent for the full year.

January listings were down eight per cent compared to the same month last year, with the big markets of Melbourne and Sydney down one per cent each.

There were also larger-than-expected declines in Perth and Brisbane, REA Group said.

The company’s shares were down nine per cent to $166.03 – the lowest level since late 2023 – around lunchtime.

REA Group’s new chief executive Cameron McIntyre said that Australia’s property market was healthy, supported by strong employment levels and population growth.

“While we saw an increase in interest rates this week, the prospect of rising rates was already widely flagged and the underlying fundamentals of the market remain very strong,” he said.

Supply had improved in Melbourne and Sydney, but some vendors had delayed their listings because of limited stock in smaller capital cities.

“Anecdotally, across the country, our customers are telling us that they’re seeing very good numbers coming through open for inspections, which aligns with that view of a buoyant level of demand that we’re seeing,” he said.

REA Group posted first-half revenue of $916 million, up five per cent from a year ago, while its underlying earnings – before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and depreciation – grew six per cent to $569 million.

Bottom line net profit rose nine per cent to $341 million.

REA Group announced a $200 million share buyback as well as an interim fully-franked dividend of $1.24 per cent, up 13 per cent from a year ago.

However, RBC Capital Markets analyst Garry Sherriff said the company’s update was negative and the results missed consensus forecasts.

“Looking forward, higher interest rates typically are generally negative for new listing volumes,” he said.

CoStar, the US-based commercial property company that acquired Domain in August for $3 billion, remains a “thorn” in the side for REA, with CoStar’s founder in Australia at the present, Mr Sherriff said.

But REA Group said it was very pleased with its result and had rolled out a number of artificial intelligence initiatives, including conversational search through a partnership with OpenAI.

So far, though, traffic from ChatGPT is “a fraction of a fraction, and that fraction has declined, not increased more recently,” Mr McIntyre told analysts.

“You’re talking about sub one per cent in terms of how we think about it going forward.”