realestate.com.au set to double operating profit

Realestate.com.au set to double operating profit
09:09, Wednesday, 8 June 2005

Sydney - Wednesday - June 8: (RWE Australian Business News) -

Realestate.com.au Ltd says it has continued to build on its strong
first-half performance and is on track to deliver between $5.0 million
and $5.2 million in operating profit for the full 2005 financial year.

This will be more than double its $2.5 million operating profit
from the previous year.

Revenues are expected to be between $31 million and $33 million,
up from $19.1 million in revenues delivered in the 2004 year.

The revenue growth has driven by the continued strong take-up in
real estate agents subscribing to realestate.com.au and a significant
increase in the purchase of additional advertising products by existing
customers.

At the end of May 2005, 6341 Australian real estate offices
subscribed to realestate.com.au and this is estimated to be between 75
and 80 per cent of the market.

Directors say realestate.com.au continues to be the most visited
real estate website in Australia and the most popular real estate site
in each state.

May was a record month for realestate.com.au with 1.73 million
visitors to the site, comprising 1.44 million Australians and 290,000
overseas visitors.

This was 700,000 more visitors than the second-placed
domain.com.au and showed 80 per cent growth on the number of visitors to
realestate.com.au in May 2004.

Mr Simon Baker, chief executive of Realestate.com.au, said:
"Online advertising is now an essential resource for the real estate
industry with many agents reporting that the Internet is now the major
source of their buyer and vendor leads.

"With the slowing of the market and the need to advertise
properties for longer, we believe that online advertising, and
Realestate.com.au in particular, is extremely well positioned for future
growth."

Shares in Realestate.com.au rose 1.5c to $1.415 yesterday.

ENDS