👉 Background: REA Group began back in 1995 as a digital property listing platform, back when the internet required a squeaky dial-up tone that would cut off your home line. But over the years, Realestate.com.au has become the largest property listings platform in Australia with 11.9 million monthly visitors — that’s nearly half of Australia’s population!

‍👉 What happened: Now, REA Group has reported a 20% jump in revenues for the past 6 months to $873 million and a 26% rise in its profits too. But, just right after this news,  REA Group’s CEO Owen Wilson (not the actor) announced that he is retiring from the CEO role.

‍👉 What else: REA Group's CEO Owen Wilson led REA Group’s share price up more than 340% since he stepped into the role. The good news is that even though the property market has been playing hard to get lately, Wilson predicts 2025 is when things get spicy again.‍

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What's the key learning?

💡The property market, like any financial market, moves in cycles.

💡Broadly speaking, real estate follows four key phases:

• Expansion phase - the prices rise, supply struggles to keep up, and competition drives the market higher.
• Boom phase - the market peaks, affordability drops, and FOMO leads rapid price growth.
• Correction phase - the interest rates rise, demand slows, and prices level out or decline.
• Recovery phase - the demand starts to pick up, prices stabilise, and investors begin to enter the market again.

💡In 2024, we were in a correction phase with Melbourne's property prices dropping 3% and Sydney increasing just 2.3%. But with expected cash rate cuts, we may be about to lean into the recovery - which is good for REA listings.