Parent company REA Group delivers mixed set of results
Major broking franchise Mortgage Choice has settled $2.7 billion through its white-label Freedom product, according to parent company REA Group’s annual results published on Wednesday.
Funded by Athena Home Loans, Freedom was launched in June 2023 as a no-frills, competitively priced mortgage product. Since then, Freedom surpassed $2 billion in settlements this April before reaching the latest milestone.
REA group also acquired a 19.9% stake in Athena Home Loans during the reporting period.
Elsewhere in REA Group (which is ultimately owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp)’s results, annual revenue swung 15% higher to $1.7 billion, with net profit added 23% to $564 million.
Chief executive Owen Wilson called it an “excellent” performance that “reflects our focus on driving deep consumer engagement and enhancing customer value”.
REA Group’s core property listing and advertising business suggested some weakness, with residential new buy listings still below 2018 levels. REA Group attributed this to the effects of the Royal Commission, Covid-19 and the Reserve Bank of Australia’s interest rate hike cycle.
Yet signs of improvement were there to see.
“Buyer activity increased during the year, with the first interest rate cuts in four years accelerating enquiries delivered to our customers to a three-year high in the last quarter. Demonstrating the health of the market, listings remained in line with the strong prior year,” sais WIlson.
