More Strong Results from REA Group

The launch of a new look and feel for REA Group’s realestate.com.au is said to be fast approaching, but today all eyes are on the company’s financial results.
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realestate.com.au Mobile Search Grows

Mobile property search seems to be taking off in Australia, especially for market leader realestate.com.au, which said it was seeing “exponential” growth in traffic to its mobile website in December.
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REA Group Reports Strong Year After Retreat

Retreating to its core business in Australia seems to have paid off for REA Group, which has reported strong results in its annual report to shareholders.
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REA Group Revenue Up, Profits Down

REA Group Limited has announced its results for the Australian financial year ending 30 June 2009, showing that it delivered 26% revenue growth and 34% EBITDA growth, and announcing a dividend payment of 10 cents per share. But the news was not all good.
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propertyfinder.com Sold to zoopla.co.uk

The rumours of REA Group owned propertyfinder.com’s potential sale to zoopla.co.uk have been confirmed, with the two companies issuing statements today.
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REA Group Sells Stake in propertyfinder.ae

The REA Group has exited the Dubai market by selling its 51% stake in propertyfinder.ae to Michael Lahyani, owner of its joint venture partner, the Swiss Media Group.

The REA Group purchased 51% of Propertyfinder.ae in October 2007 with the objective of driving strong growth on online real estate advertising in the Gulf Region.

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New REA Group Media Resource Centre

REA Group Media has launched a new resource centre, reagroupmedia.com.au, that it argues consolidates its presence as a key player in the online media space.
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realestate.com.au Re-Launch Mobile Platform

realestate.com.au has launched a new mobile version of its website which will allow consumers to search for property on their mobile phone handset.
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REA Group Projects 50% Revenue Growth

While many in the property portal world are worried about a possible downturn in advertising revenue, Greg Ellis, CEO of REA Group, remains optimistic.

Ellis made the positive comments in an interview with The Australian newspaper published today.

He said that the online real estate classified market shows no sign of succumbing to the advertising slowdown. He also said that the REA Group expects to maintain revenue growth of about 50 per cent this financial year.

Ellis was quoted as saying:

“People are spending a very small proportion of their annual budgets online… The saturation point of that is years away.”

REA count realestate.com.au in Australia and propertyfinder.com in the UK among their stable of international property portals.

Mr Ellis was also reported as saying that an Australian mobile site would go into beta testing before the end of this financial year.

A lot of attention has been on the REA Group of late, with rapid international expansion, the appointment of Greg Ellis as CEO, News Limited increasing their stake in the company, and record breaking 45 percent increase in revenues last financial year.

The REA Group Appoints Greg Ellis as New CEO

Today the REA Group announced the appointment of Greg Ellis as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer.   Ellis is currently Marketing Director Asia Online Services for Microsoft. He will take on the new role on Monday, 8 September.

Ellis has over 20 years business experience, 14 of which have been in senior line management positions. He has worked in Australia, Asia and Europe.

Before his current role at Microsoft, he was Managing Director of Online and Search at World Directories in the Netherlands.

Ellis also spent five years at Sensis and 11 years at Telstra. At Sensis, he was most recently General Manager of Sensis Interactive. At Telstra, his most recent role was National General Manager, Marketing Strategy & Planning.

You can check out Greg Ellis’ full bio on linkedin (http://www.linkedin.com/in/gellis)