REA Group Limited, the owner of realestate.com.au, posted a 21% rise in operating profit to $147.3 million for the half year to December, driven by strong property listings in the Melbourne and Sydney markets.

The result was also improved due to the inclusion of financial services revenue from home loans for the first time.

Statutory profit was down 55% to $132.36 million when compared to last year. However, last year included $161.6 million from the sale of REA’s Europe business.

A short time ago, REA shares were up 0.7% to $72.05.

Total residential listings were marginally down but the number of properties grew in the key markets of Melbourne and Sydney.

“Our growth is underpinned by the strength of our core Australian business,” says CEO Tracey Fellows.

“We expect to see normal seasonality of revenue in Australia, which traditionally results in higher
first half revenue than second half revenue.”

The company declared a dividend of 47 cents a share, up 18%.

The half year results at a glance:

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