So who is realestate.com.au?
In November last year, realestate.com.au and News International purchased propertyfinder. Now most of you will know who News International is. They are the publisher of The Sun, the UK's most popular newspaper, The Times and The London Property News.
However, many of you may not know who realestate.com.au is.
realestate.com.au is the largest property portal in Australia. It has operations in Australia, New Zealand and the UK (with propertyfinder) across both the residential and commercial segments. It is the same size as Rightmove with both having ~£18 million in revenues for the 12 months ending December 2005 and is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, having a market cap of £185m.
Founded in 1995, realestate.com.au Ltd is rapidly emerging as a leading global online real estate media company. realestate.com.au is a member of the All Ordinaries Index on the ASX (Australian Stock Exchange) and currently has a market capitalisation of AUS$410m.
realestate.com.au Ltd currently owns and operates four leading real estate websites – realestate.com.au, realcommercial.com.au, allrealestate.co.nz and propertyfinder.com.
realestate.com.au is Australia’s largest residential real estate site and was launched in 1995. Over 80 percent of Australian residential real estate agents advertise more than 350,000 properties for rent and for sale on the site. Each month, realestate.com.au is visited by over 2.8 million people from Australia and around the world.
realcommercial.com.au is Australia’s largest commercial real estate site and was launched in December 2002. It is used by over 600 commercial agents and business buyers who advertise more than 40,000 commercial properties and businesses for sale or for lease. Each month, realcommercial.com.au is visited by 150,000 people.
propertyfinder.com is the UK’s third largest residential real estate site and was jointly purchased by realestate.com.au and News International in November 2005. It is used by over 2,500 residential agents who advertise over 270,000 properties for rent and for sale across the UK and Europe. Each month, propertyfinder.com is visited by 1.1 million people from the UK and around the world.
allrealestate.co.nz is New Zealand’s third largest residential real estate site and was launched in August 2005. It is used by over 500 residential agents and is visited by over 150,000 people each month.
In addition, realestate.com.au Ltd operates Australia’s leading real estate web site design business (realestate.com.au Web Services) and is a 50% equity holder in a mortgage broking business – realestate.com.au Home Loans.
realestate.com.au Ltd is the only company listed on Australia’s Business Review Weekly’s Fast 100 in October 2005 for the fourth year running, as one of the fastest growing (based on revenue) 100 companies in Australia.
Comments
Its interesting to read about realestate.com.au and its market value of £185m at a time when Rightmove has floated for over £400m. If the companies have similar revenues, why such a difference in market values - are we experiencing another dotcom bubble in the UK?
Posted by: Interested observor | March 13, 2006 06:03 PM
Interested observor does raise an interesting question. I see that rightmove is now valued at over £500m. Given the last revenues being just £18.2m, this is an enormous multiple. I have also read that they are trading at over 60 times earnings. Call me crazy but can the price really be sustained?
Posted by: Grahame | March 15, 2006 01:25 PM
I couldn't agree more Graham. Its like lasminute.com all over again. I will be very surprised if Rightmove is still valued as highly in 18 months' time. Expect the hype to carry on for a while, followed by a sharp fall (maybe to around £250m) and then a gradual recovery to maybe £350m if they continue to succeed. The fact is that if Rightmove don't achieve the growth they claim they'll end up being worth less than £100m, never mind £500m. I hope not too many of their customers took up the offer to buy shares...
Posted by: Interested observor | March 15, 2006 04:10 PM