News: Australian realtor McGrath tips earnings miss on weak listings, departures

SYDNEY, Jan 23 (Reuters) - McGrath Ltd (MEA), Australia's only listed residential realtor, said on Monday it expects earnings in the current financial year to be below analyst forecasts because of soft listing volumes and an unusually high number of agents leaving.

The company said in a statement that "unprecedented low volumes of listings" had not improved since it last warned of the problem in November 2016, and that it lost 36 sales agents from its offices segment.

The company added that it was recruiting new agents but "the usual time for an agent to become fully productive means these new agents will not match the volumes required to maintain our previously expected second-half earnings".