REA Group Stock

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the REA Group Limited Full Year 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Alice Bennett, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome, everyone. My name is Alice Bennett, Head of Investor Relations, and I'd like to thank you for joining REA Group's 2026 Full Year Results Presentation. Before we commence, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of country throughout Australia and recognize the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Original cultures and to elders past and present.

Today, you'll hear from REA's CEO, Cam McIntyre; and Andrew Cramer, REA's CFO. Cam will talk to our overarching financial performance and strategic highlights for the year. He will then hand over to Andrew to talk to our financial results in more depth. And following this, we'll be happy to take your questions.

With that, I'll pass to Cam to get us started.

Thanks, Alice. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our call. We've had an excellent FY '26 underpinned by a number of things, but in particular, double-digit yield growth product development been moving forward at a great pace, which you'll see is creating tangible opportunities and adding to the value we deliver for our consumers, customers and brokers alike.

So let's jump into the detail. Look at the group financial result. Core operations for the year saw revenue up 7% on PCP to $1.79 billion, EBITDA excluding associates, was up 12% on PCP to $1.09 billion, up 15% to $650 million and free cash flow was strong, too, up 17% to $628 million. The Board has determined to pay a final dividend of $1.73 per share together with the interim dividend, this represents a total dividend of $2.97 per share fully franked, an increase of 20% on PCP.

Alongside our operating performance, we maintained a disciplined approach to cost and capital management. We improved operational efficiency, and we returned capital to shareholders through our $200 million share buyback program, reflecting the financial strength and the confidence that we have in the business. We evolved our well-established strategy during the year as well, and we enter our new chapter from a position of strength. Our strategy for the years ahead builds on the success of the past 3 decades and sharpens our focus on unlocking new growth.

Our purpose remains clear, and that is to change the way the world experiences property. And as a technology, data and AI, they will transform the industry. We see significant opportunity to deliver even more value for consumers, customers and brokers. Our strategy embraces our evolving landscape, putting trust at the core underpinned by our strengths in deep relationships, unparalleled data and better outcomes for our stakeholders. We are focused on 3 enterprise-wide missions to reinvent property experiences, scale our growth engines and accelerate the organization. We'll dive a little bit more into this strategy on our Investor Day, which we're planning for in October this year.

Now before we move into our operational highlights, I'd like to touch on the market conditions at present. As you can see on the chart on the left, listing volumes in the June quarter strengthened against softer comps with strong growth in all capital cities. The chart on the right highlights the return to more normalized market conditions in the last 3 years, the fluctuating listing volumes between FY '19 and FY '23 reflect the impact of the Royal Commission, the pandemic and successive interest rate hikes. The more stable market in FY '26 supported vendor confidence with by listings in line with prior year's strong volumes and around 1% below FY '18.

On the buyer side, inquiry levels remained strong in FY '26 although the last 3 interest rate rises in the second half, capital gains, tax changes and negative gearing changes created some uncertainty, which flowed through to inquiry volumes towards the very end of the financial year. Despite all this, though, properties continued to sell at a relatively typical rate in most capital cities highlighting some continued strength in underlying demand. Looking at property pricing in the chart on the left of this slide. And as you can see here, prices remain significantly higher than recent years in all capital cities except Melbourne. The softening in buyer inquiry volumes mentioned earlier that we saw in Q4 did begin to impact price growth in the quarter.

Looking at the right side of the slide, the rental market remains challenging for tenants with national rents reaching new highs in the June quarter. Rental vacancies have slightly increased, which will support tenants. However, an anticipated decrease in investor demand is likely to put renewed pressure on rents.

Just looking at some of our business highlights for the year. And FY '26 was a transformative year where we rapidly extended our AI capability and delivered new experiences and products for our consumers, customers and brokers, which I'll talk to you a little bit more about in a moment. Our personalized and immersive experiences supported a record 12.7 million monthly realestate.com.au visitors and continue to deepen consumer engagement. 5. 2 Million unique properties are now tracked by their owners on our platform. We also achieved record Premier Plus penetration in residential and recorded Elite plus debt penetration in commercial at record levels as well. And finally, last month, we announced the sale of our remaining Indian business, Housing.com to [indiscernible] PropTech. [indiscernible] has strong capability and local market knowledge, make it well placed to build on the foundations the Indian team have established over time.

Taking a closer look at our audience levels and high-quality engagement. More people than ever visited our flagship site in FY '26, a record 12.7 million people visited out the platform each month, that's $5.2 million more than our nearest competitor. The real value in our large-scale audience lies in the deep engagement with our consumers. The size of our audience has continued to grow over the last 2 years and key engagement metrics have also strengthened. The quality of the realestate.com.au experience and the strength of our brand ensures Australians continually return to our platform. Consumers spend more time on our platform than any other property site and across the year, we achieved a record $146 million average monthly visits.

Some of the key sources of our competitive advantage include the size of our audience, our data, which fuels our experiences and firmly positions REA as a leading beneficiary of artificial intelligence. REA has the largest and most engaged property audience in the country, a unique consumer intent and behavioral data that feeds into each of the proprietary data sets we have is highlighted on this slide. Everyone can see our listings, but only REA can see what's underneath. Our compounding data sets include unmatched consumer intent and behavior rich property records, the deepest listing and transaction outcomes, the most comprehensive agent workflow and performance data and unique finance and affordability data.

Turning to our consumer experience highlights and our goal to convert our market-leading audience into members remains Members are more likely to take a high value action, enhancing the value delivered to our customers. New AI-powered features immersive experiences, plus rich data and content, enhance the membership experience in FY '26 and supported a 14% growth in our membership base on PCP. Powered by our proprietary data the new AI system experience enables members to ask us anything about property during the search on our platform evolves throughout the year from natural language to conversational and now the AI assistant has the power to support people right through the property journey.

Consumers can discover properties, check affordability, evaluate, compare and take action. Members share more about their property objectives with this intelligent search experience, and these insights enable us to better meet their needs. It's now available to all members with over 20% of sessions converting to a high-value action, such as saving or sharing a listing. Ultimately, the AIS system experience will support the delivery of more valuable leads to our customers. Property seekers are increasingly seeking more immersive and informative search experiences. Our visualization strategy is designed to deeply engage consumers in our content. The upload of iGUIDE 3D tours is accelerating with around 180 cameras now in market. The feedback from customers continues to be positive, particularly around the superior experience with near zero load time for iGUIDE onto our platform.

Turning now to customers. And the social media style video hub on our app home screen, evolved in July to include listing videos. This is a powerful and high exposure engagement feature for Premier Plus and Luxe listings, and it was a key component of our FY '27 recontracting. The hub has been a driver in accelerating native video views with over 2.9 million video hub views since the feature launched in November. Our audience extension offering, audience maximizer puts listings in front of active buyers wherever they browse online. Penetration more than doubled on PCP, with customers recognizing the value in our click-based packages and price points and the new features such as automated video content.

And on the right, uptake in our high performance listing solution, Luxe continues to accelerate, immersive content features, improved home page targeting and new packages all underpinned increasing penetration. Looking at highlights from our customer platforms and services. In the fourth quarter, we commenced the rollout of our new Agentic Chat capability in our self-service Ignite platform called Campaign Assist. The feature combines consumer intent and Prop track powered ABM data to provide customers with strategic recommendations to boost the performance of a listing. Enhanced brand exposure and access to exclusive products and tools underpin the value of our top-tier Pro subscription.

Agency groups continue to recognize this with several customer groups signing enterprise-wide Pro agreements in FY '26. The total number of customers with a pro subscription also more than doubled on the prior year. Underpinning the value for all our customers is access to our Ignite platform and monthly active users increased 17% on PCP. Our commercial platform delivered record audience with 2.9 million Australians visiting out the platform on average each month. The experiences, features and engaging content supported audience growth, including points of interest maps on listings, new demographic data and the integration of iGUIDE. Our top-tier commercial product, [indiscernible] achieved record penetration and the value of Ignite continue to increase. Almost 90% of commercial agencies have been onboarded to Ignite, and we saw 109% PCP growth in monthly active users.

Turning to Financial Services. Product innovation and brand investments supported good revenue growth here. Enhancements in our finance experience on our platform supported the delivery of quality leads to mortgage choice brokers with settlements from REA leads up 30% on PCP. Continued investment in our core broking platforms and in AI training and tools delivered greater value to with 50% of our brokers now using AI agents to efficiently automate the processes. In June, we acquired a 70% interest in commercial finance brokerage simplicity, diversifying our financial services business. REA is an AI prime organization. And in FY '26 we introduced a coordinated approach to expanding AI tools and scaling agent augmented teams that we're calling Flow lab.

Flow Lab experimentation is reengineering product delivery at REA and is supporting the expansion of our suite of AI tools and platforms that optimize return on investment. Utilizing a genic AI throughout product development end to end. We're able to validate what works and what doesn't within hours previously, this would take weeks or months. The initial trial within our [indiscernible] business accelerated speed with the AgenticFirst team delivering planned work 2.6x faster. We think this is just the start and in FY '27, we'll continue to scale this experiment with our agent augmented team model across our tech workforce. Rewiring our engineering teams through Flow Lab is beginning to release capacity of our people and will enable us to reinvest in our highest value growth priorities. It supports faster time to market, capacity to invest in emerging revenue streams while opening opportunities to invest in new TAMs and providing more flex in our cost base.

Looking at some of our international highlights, and we announced the acquisition of a controlling stake in Canadian-based [indiscernible] and the maker of iGUIDE. That was last October. In FY '26, iGUIDE grew locally in local currency revenues by 26%, with growth in its residential construction and commercial markets. In the U.S. market, REA has a 20% interest in [indiscernible] operator of realtor.com. Realtor is rapidly scaling its AI first consumer experience as well. Its new conversational tool is proving highly engaging for serious buyers with consumers treating the product as a trusted adviser rather than just the traditional search tool. Move revenues increased 11% and its equity accounted loss of $14 million, reflected a $5 million improvement on prior year.

Before I hand over to Andrew, I'd like to share a few comments on the market as we look ahead. Market fundamentals remain solid, and we can see consumers is still there closely monitoring the market through our traffic and engagement. Interest rates, however, are the biggest factor contributing to current market uncertainty at the moment. It's likely that we're at or near the peak of the interest rate cycle, we believe, but the most recent rate rises along with the federal government budget tax changes have impacted buyer sentiment in recent months.

In listings, Sydney and Melbourne led new listings volumes in FY '26, but we're starting to see Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide outperform. The market is still recalibrating post budget, but once it settles and interest rates stabilize, we expect consumer confidence to improve and buyers to become more active, particularly looking towards H2. And finally, REA has entered the new financial year with a healthy balance sheet, strong product pipeline, sustained strength in our core business and a talented team doing an excellent job.

And with that, I will now hand over to Mr. Cramer to take us through the financials in more detail.

Thank you, Cam, and good morning, everyone. REA has delivered excellent full year results. With a focus on controlling the controllables, we've been able to drive value to our customers, double-digit yield growth a heightened focus on cost management and a renewed discipline around capital allocation. Taken together, this has seen REA delivered strong double-digit EPS growth despite slight listings across the year. It has also seen us exit REA India and the result of an improvement in EPS and free cash flow.

From our cooperations, revenue increased 7% to $1.79 billion. EBITDA, excluding associates, of $1.09 billion was up 12%. NPAT of $650 million was up 15%. EPS of $4.93 was up 15% and free cash flow of $628 million was up 17%. As CFO, it is pleasing to see those prior corresponding period growth rates increase as we move from revenue to EBITDA and down to NPAT and free cash flow. With the July announcement of the sale of housing.com, India is now treated as a discontinued business. If we look at the performance of fiscal '26 on a continuing business basis, then revenue and EBITDA increased 12% and NPAT and EPS, 14% and free cash flow 18%. Pleasingly, REA has delivered EPS growth through the cycle with an EPS CAGR of 12% over the last 4 years. Despite fiscal '23 being one of the worst cyclical downturns we have experienced in Australia.

Slide 25 outlines both our core financial results, which include India, and our results on a continuing business basis with India excluded. Slide 26 provides a summary of the reconciliation between the core and statutory results with several one-off items excluded. The most material adjustments are the $111 million write-down of REA India in fiscal '26 and the $117 million impairment reversal on the divestiture of Property Guru in fiscal '25.

Turning to Slide 27. Our Australian residential business had another strong year, delivering 12% revenue growth. National buy listings were flat across fiscal '26 with growth rates improving each quarter as comparables become easier. The flat outcome was marginally better than our anticipated range of negative 1% to negative 3% reflecting a stronger-than-expected fourth quarter. As a result, we've seen revenue deferrals of 1% into Q1 fiscal '27. While Sydney and Melbourne outperformed the broader market in fiscal '26, up 3% and 4%, respectively. Pleasingly, we saw a recovery in other markets during the fourth quarter. Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide were up a combined 17% while Melbourne and Sydney were up 8%.

[indiscernible] yield was strong, up 13% and in line with our guidance this was driven by a 7% average Premier Plus price rise, growth in add-ons, [ AMAX ] in particular, but also Luxe, increased subscription revenues and increased debt penetration. Geo mix had a neutral impact across the full year, resulting in controllable yield being in line with reported by yield at 7%. However, as is often the case, geo-mix was volatile during the year, with Q1 neutral Q2 up 2%; Q3, up 1%. And in Q4, we saw geo-mix turn negative as markets like Brisbane and Perth recovered and outpaced Melbourne and Sydney. [indiscernible] was down 2% in Q4. The following slide shows both the penetration and mix of paid listings in the residential business, together with the penetration of the audience maximizer and Luxe add-ons.

Pleasingly, we saw continued growth in overall debt penetration and continued tiering up to Premier Plus. Performance of our social media product, audience maximizer was also very strong. with the introduction of new tiers and bundles, resulting in penetration more than doubling in fiscal '26. While it is still early days for Luxe, we've seen penetration more than triple and we continue to see Luxe taken up across properties of all values. Around 70% of Luxe's listings today are on properties with a value of less than $3 million. And of those, more than 15% on properties with a value below the $1 million mark.

Commercial and New Homes revenue growth almost hit double digits for the full year, delivering 9% revenue growth on the prior corresponding period up to $238 million of combined revenue. Commercial revenue increased by 10% with yield growth driven by an average 7% price rise and increased debt penetration, these things were also a positive driver up 2% for the year. Pleasingly, we saw growth in all major asset classes, including office, industrial and retail. New Homes revenue was up 9% on the prior corresponding period, driven by a 6% increase in project profile volumes, growth in average yield and higher display revenues. Financial Services led by Anthony Walden and his talented team has had an excellent year, with revenue up 11% to $114 million and EBITDA increasing 20% year-over-year.

Mortgage Choice revenues were up 10%, benefiting from a 13% increase in settlements, partially offset by higher broker payout rates. [indiscernible] revenues grew 13% through new customer data contracts. The Financial Services segment also benefited from 1 month of simplicity, the commercial broking business we acquired in June 2026.

Turning now to our margin. The slide highlights the continuous improvement in Australia's operating EBITDA margin over the last 4 years with our margin increasing to close to 66% in fiscal '26. This has been driven by double-digit revenue growth in Australia, up 11% this year and a deceleration of cost growth to 7%, reflecting tighter cost management in the second half of the year. The differential between Australian revenue and Australian and cost CAGRs or jaws is as wide as it has been at these revenue growth rates since 2021.

We will continue to invest in the business as top line revenue growth is paramount, but we will continue to be disciplined in relation to costs. Australia's 7% operating cost growth included double-digit growth in cost of goods sold in marketing and in technology, offset by moderation in labor cost growth. Labor cost growth slowed 3% across the full year. With typical wage inflation offset by a modest reduction in headcount and the ongoing structural shift to utilize our centers of excellence in Manila and Cyber City India. The increase in COGS reflected the more than doubling in penetration of our audience maximizer social media add-on. Higher marketing costs were in part due to the timing of Ready-25, which was not in the prior year, and the investment made in our new Australian open sponsorship.

As expected, technology costs increased due to price rises and investment in AI. Excluding COGS, Australian operating costs increased only 5%, and REA has had a strong and consistent track record of investment in product development to drive better consumer experiences and deliver more value to our customers. In fiscal 2016, this investment included a number of new products and experiences across all lines of business with a focus on AI, video and platform health. CapEx to revenue in Australia was 7.6% in fiscal '26, and we anticipate fiscal '27 to again be within our stated 7% to 9% target range.

Turning to Slide 34 and our cash position. We ended the year with a cash balance of $366 million. The group delivered free cash flow of $628 million, up 17%. This allowed us to continue to invest in the business, both organically and inorganically and to deliver strong shareholder returns with $546 million returned to shareholders during the year, comprising of REA's in normal share buyback of $200 million with stock bought back at a volume-weighted average price of $159 and $346 million returned by dividends paid during the year. We are also pleased to announce an increase in our final dividend by 25% to bring our full year dividend to $2.97, an increase of 20% for the full year. Pleasingly, the growth in dividends outpaced the growth in EPS as we increased returns to shareholders in the form of a higher dividend payout ratio.

Our balance sheet is incredibly healthy. and we believe we are balancing nicely returning capital to our shareholders while also maintaining flexibility and optionality for future growth opportunities. Finally, turning to the outlook for fiscal '27. Owing to higher-than-expected listings in Q4 fiscal '26, new national by listings are anticipated to be flat to down low single digits in fiscal '20. July listings were 2% lower on the prior corresponding period, but in line with the 8-year average. Combined, Melbourne and Sydney listings declined by 16%, while Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide increased by 13%. The group anticipates controllable residential buy yield growth, excluding the impact of geographical mix in the low double digits, driven by an 8% Premier Plus price rise and growth in add-ons.

As is often the case, [indiscernible] across the full year will be the main swing factor when we reported fiscal '27 by yield ultimately lands. We will continue to target operational margin expansion. Excluding the iGUIDE [indiscernible] acquisitions, ex M&A, operating costs are expected to increase mid-single digits for both Australia and the group. Group operating costs, including M&A, are expected to increase mid- to high single digits in fiscal '27 on a continuing business basis, excluding India, off a base of $609 million in fiscal '26. Contributions from associates are expected to improve modestly compared to the prior corresponding period.

In closing, I wanted to reiterate how pleased we are with these results. The results are a product of the thoughtfulness, the focus, the discipline and the hard work of a very strong team at REA. For the second year in a row, REA has delivered strong double-digit EPS growth in a broadly flat listings environment. Rest assured, we will continue to execute our strategy. We'll continue to focus on controlling the controllables and we will continue to invest prudently for the long term. I trust you are going to sense earlier from Cam on just how excited we all are by the new opportunities we see leveraging AI to enhance the experience of our consumers, our customers, our brokers and our employees. We are really looking forward to taking you through all those things in more detail during our Investor Day in October.

Operator, could we please open the line for any questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is going to come from the line of [indiscernible] with E&P.

Andrew. My first question is just around the guidance. And I suppose the 1 element that you haven't specifically guided on, of course, I'm going to pick on it, is the potential geo mix impact into FY '27. And I appreciate there's probably only so much visibility you've got. But are you able to give us any color on how you're thinking about it in your budgets? I guess if we look at the recent periods, it was most pronounced in FY '23 at minus 5%. I guess, I'm interested in whether you think it could be as bad as that number or whether you think it will be a more moderate negative impact perhaps? I've got a couple of others, but I might wait for the answer to that 1 first.

I'll take that one. right. It is difficult to forecast geographical mix and [indiscernible] have been focused on providing guidance around the things that we can control. So control and the [indiscernible] as it relates to [indiscernible] your memory is correct. In fiscal '23, we found down negative 5%, but '24 was plus 3 fiscal '25 plus 1 and last year was flat. And even in the year that we've just had, it bounced around other 0 plus 2 plus 1 and then finish the year at negative 2%. So I guess the key takeaway is volatile -- and it's not something that we have a great sense about at this stage, and we'll kind of see how the fiscal '27 year plays out.

Got it. And then on the OpEx side, you've reaffirmed the targets for operational margin expansion. I suppose if I think about the delta between revenue and OpEx growth. Do you see that as limited in any way? I'm just conscious of in the past, the company had talked about a 1% to 3% difference between revenue growth and OpEx growth. In your mind, does that still hold? You obviously did a bit better than in FY '26, but just how you're thinking about that delta between those numbers.

Yes, it's a good question. And so -- so in fiscal '26, the differential was 4 percentage points, and it is why as it has been at that revenue growth level since fiscal '21. So really, really happy how the business took on that approach to cost in fiscal '26. And our guidance in fiscal '27 is as low on cost as it ever has been mid-single-digit 20 strip out India and the impacts of M&A. We feel very comfortable to make that guidance to market. We have levers at our disposal, the offshore centers of excellence we have in Manila, and so obviously, the India give us optionality as does flood, which Cam talked to you a little bit about, and we look forward to talking about [indiscernible] Investor Day. That also gives us the opportunity to go faster, which we're doing. And that's really the focus. But as needed, that could also allow us to drop some efficiency to the bottom line. So we feel very comfortable with the commitment to operational margin expansion.

Just a final one. From a capital management point of view, so you haven't relined the buyback. Can you talk to the rationale for that? I mean, I know you talked about optionality, but obviously, you've got a pretty good cash balance. And you also have a substantial franking credit balance, I think it's over $1.1 billion at the moment. So maybe can you comment on whether the Board has considered a special dividend as an option?

Sure, Andrew. And you're right, I mean, the buyback was new for us. So that was our inaugural buyback. We're really happy with the execution. We bought back $200 million of stock at around $159. So it was very well done. And you would have noticed in the release this morning that we increased the final dividend by 25%. So the payout ratio is up at 60%. So we felt like it's that combination of things where returning just under $550 million of cash to [indiscernible] in the year. The balance sheet is pristine. It's really healthy. We're proud of where that sits, and we think it gives us a great deal of optionality.

The [indiscernible] credit question is an interesting one, too. You're right, we have north of $1 billion of franking credits. I mean there's a slight nuance of the buyback, given the low paid-in capital that we have at REA, owing to the heritage of the company. When we buy back stock beyond that level, we have to stream for every dollar we buy back [indiscernible] of those frame credits get streamed to the ATI and don't get returned to shareholders. It's something we're mindful when we think about the buyback, and it absolutely makes frank dividends probably comparatively more attractive all things considered.

Our next question will be from the line of Eric Choi with Barrenjoey.

Could I please ask 3 as well, maybe one on guidance, one on kind of product and new monetization levers and maybe just a follow-up on costs. But just the first one. If I look at FY '27, relative to the 650 NPAT that you guys did in FY '26 consensus is only assuming that grows around 11% to say, 720 next year. But I think with all the information you've given us today, it suggests it should be more like 19% to 20% NPAT growth into FY '27. And I just wanted to check the very, very simple logic with you, because if you look at your Australian business, we grew EBITDA by $130 million in FY '26. And then into FY '21, there's going to be puts and takes in Australia, like listings might be a bit worse, but your cost is better as well. So like conceivably, the Australian business could grow at $130 million of EBITDA again, which is kind of $90 million post tax. And so that would be 14% NPAT growth just from Australia already.

And then we know India is kind of like 5% to 6% NPA accretive. And then you said other associates are also going to improve a bit. Like you add all that up very simple bridge, you're getting 19% to 20% NPAT growth to 770 plus next year. Should I go -- sorry, could I pause there?

If I work away bottom up, you're right. We've guided to associate losses improving India is -- will be a discontinued operation. So I get stripped out of the historical period as well as fiscal '27 going forward. So you have to look at the statutory accounts to see the jump you're describing, you won't see it now continuing ops disclosures. But I think that your math is about right on the benefits. That was a drag on EBITDA and free cash flow and having that out of the business will give us that uplift on NPAT.

So that's fair. Using '26 as a base, I won't comment on your $130 million EBITDA. But in relation to the outlook. Listings were flat in fiscal '26. And I guess we're probably owing to the fast finish to fiscal '26, we're guiding fiscal '27 to be flat and down a little bit on yield. We finished at 13% in fiscal '26. We're guiding to low double digits there. So you're right that it's sort of in a similar or park on costs, we are guiding to be a little bit tighter. So I think your logic makes good sense, but I'm not going to comment on your math and the output, but I think your assumptions are sound.

Awesome. Second one from us less convoluted, just on product and potential new monetization levers maybe second half 2017, maybe in FY '28. But like Scout24 in May, they launched AgenticOS. You've sort of announced AI assistant and campaign agent today, and some of that's going to go into your Ignite product. So my question was could these be levers to drive either a higher subscription revenue growth or could you use those as incentives to drive, say, Luxe [indiscernible] uptake in exchange for subscription discounts going forward?

Yes. Thanks, Eric. I'm happy to take that question. Look, we're really happy with the campaign Assist product. We think it's a great product that puts a fantastic tool in the hands of our customers using our Prop Track and AMV data. I mean, clearly, it gives customers the opportunity to upsell or managed campaign performance throughout a campaign and provide the opportunity to engage vendors at different points in time. So it's very early days with it. In terms of the value that it adds in terms of subs and so on, I think that's too early to call from our perspective. We're just happy to have it out there, happy to have it in the hands of our customers and see how it performs, and we'll continue to tweak and evolve it, but we're very excited about it.

And then last one, maybe for you, Cam or Andrew. Just to follow up on cost. I think, Andrew, you're sort of intimating jaws is higher than history, but that probably reflects say, a greater structural focus on efficiencies, and it's not just a cyclical response. So I just wanted to confirm that. But if that's the case, is the inference or so if listings in FY '27 are worse than, say, your flat to low single-digit declines, then presumably, you'd also take that cost guidance or the scope to take that cost guidance lower as well?

Yes. Thanks, Eric, as to fiscal '26, we're really happy with the cost controls and the way the business approach [indiscernible] expected with how well the business finished from a listings perspective. So that probably widened the jaws a little bit towards the end of fiscal -- we're competing to open doors or operational margin expansion we're calling it, and we've guided the market to low or to mid-single-digit cost growth lower than what it has been historically. And I think as [indiscernible] I discussed a little bit earlier, we have some levers at our disposal that gives us confidence in that if listings are down, then we can adjust costs accordingly.

But what I would say, and it's really important is that growing and investing in that top line is paramount for this business. And so what we want to do is short term the business or do anything that impacts product development or things that will grow the top line in managing costs. I want to be really clear on that.

Our next question will come from the line of Roger Samuel with Jefferies Australia.

Just 2 questions for me. First one, can you remind us how long can a Premium Plus listing last on the website or the app. And if this property is not sold, then can the customer releases and how much do you have to pay for it.

I'll do that question. So look, I mean, a Premier Plus listing has unlimited days on site. And if the property fails to sell, and then we do offer customers the opportunity to pull the listing down and then relist it at a later date up to 3 months post that. But I guess the crucial thing to note here is that this will only be -- only counted as 1 listing, if that's the crux of your question.

Yes, that's right. Yes. And when they relisted is there a fee that they have to pay [indiscernible].

Not if it's the same agent. If it goes to a different agent, down the track, then it's discounted by 50%.

Okay. And my second question is just on the appetite for more depth listing sort of add on what a given that we've done getting more and more difficult to start a property. Are you seeing any increased uptake in the last few months? You mentioned about the slowdown in the buy inquiry with the end of the June quarter.

Yes. I guess, I've been around these platforms for a long time. And what you tend to see when things get a little bit more challenging, depth becomes a real opportunity for vendors to stand out. So intuitively, I guess we believe that while the market might be a little bit more challenged, it does provide us with more opportunity to sell more depth. So I guess, that's a little bit of a tailwind.

Our next question comes from the line of Sriharsh Singh with Bank of America.

A couple of questions from me on yield. First, on the FY '27 guidance, low double-digit yield growth. So besides price increase, which of the add-on products will contribute the most to get in your view between Amex, Luxe and to subscriptions? Or is there something else which could be contributing a little bit on the margin? Second question is just thinking slightly. Another way to ask you about the geo mix the potential geo mix impact into FY '27.

Look, based on our tracking and some data, Sydney and Melbourne listings are up 12% to 15% versus long-term average. So my question is, if Sydney and Melbourne listings were to normalize towards the long-term average, what kind of a geo mix drag would that entitle I think.

That's one for me So firstly, on the yield, fiscal '27, the 8% Premier Plus price rise is the largest contributor to the yield. And then add-ons just like fiscal '26 are the next most material contributor but the mix is different. So whereas last year was AMAX and then a little like this coming fiscal year, Luxe will be a much larger contributor to yield than AMAX, but AMAX will still be a positive contributor to. We'll probably get a little bit from penetration perhaps too, but that will be much less material. And we didn't put the subscription price up for our agent community, and so that will be a less material contributor, albeit we will see a gradual uptick of the pro subscription, which will help a little.

As it relates to geo, it's a really interesting question and something we're doing thinking about too. So there it's not just the Sydney and Melbourne relativity. It's not as simple as that. [indiscernible] it depends on the communities within those markets and then the pricing within those cities. And then it also depends on for the rest of Australia, when we compare the cities to Melbourne and Sydney. If Brisbane is a large contributor, that's generally a positive given the pricing in that city compared to, say, rural Australia.

So there's a few different elements at play there to be specific in answering your question, if listings in Melbourne City did come back towards historical averages, we would see an element of negative yield from GeoMx, but that could well be offset by uptick in other cities like Brisbane, as I mentioned.

Super clear, if I can sneak in 1 more. Is L&M traffic as a share of total traffic for you? Is that rising? Or is it also flattening out for you over the last 6 months?

I mean that -- to answer that question is pretty simple. It's flat, and it's well and truly south of 1% of our traffic.

Our next question comes from the line of Lucy Huang with UBS.

I've just got 2 questions. So just the first one, are you able to give us a sense as to how stellar leads have trended across the platform? And I'm also wondering whether you're starting to see a bit of a correlation between seller leads as a leading indicator for listing volumes.

Yes. Great question, Lucy. So in relation to sellers leads, so I'd say sales in July, and that's probably the best comp to your question. I mean, my view is seller leads are a lead indicator of what we expect to see over the coming months as consumers think about putting their properties up for sale. And I'd say sell leads have been consistent with what we saw in listing volume in July as well. So pretty flat this month in July.

Yes. So based on what you can see, it looks like the trend is still kind of stable at this point in time through the sale lease.

Correct Yes. That's exactly right.

And then just my second question around kind of like lock take up. And I understand that you kind of put out some incentives for agents to contract kind of -- or make commitments to put more listings on to Luxe into FY '27. Any color you can shed on what proportion of agents have actually signed on to this commitment. And I know it's early days in the year, but just getting signs that we are seeing kind of Luxe take-up increasing.

No, I think probably the only color I can really give you is we were really happy with the Luxe sign-ups over recent months, and the product is in a really good spot. So that along with AMAX, we've been really pleased with.

And so just a follow-up to that. Will you be forcing agents to pace of Luxe commitments through the year, even to say they don't choose to upgrade up to 20%? Or do you think you'll keep it fairly I guess just let it go in a way for this year, given that we've committed to it.

So I didn't quite hear that you repeat the question.

Sorry, just in terms of Luxe commitment because I think some agency will be committing up to 20% of listings on to like. So if they don't lift up to 20%, will you make a decision to charge them anyway or is the intention to just treat it as an aspiration.

Look, I think if they've made a commitment that's the commitment they've signed up to, that's how we operate. So yes.

Our next question comes from the line of Lachlan Elliot with Macquarie.

I just wanted to follow up. I think we saw about capital allocation earlier, but just specifically on how you're thinking about M&A now that you've kind of streamlined the business and you've got that healthy cash balance. Is it going to be more of a bolt-on situation? Or are there other kind of big opportunities that you're considering? Just any color on that would be great.

Thanks for the question. I'm happy to take that one. I guess when it comes to M&A, it's an opportunity opportunity sort of discussion decision process. It comes down to the size of the potential opportunity where it's located, familiarity with it, et cetera, et cetera. So it's not really a one size fits all. And I think you'll find that over the last sort of 9 months or so, we've had certainly plenty to keep us busy here. And I wouldn't say M&A has been at the top of the list of things to do outside of India. But certainly, we remain an acquisitive business and are always looking at out for opportunities as they might arise.

Great. And then maybe just switching gears a little bit, I just wanted to follow up on that volume guidance. You've given the guidance for flights are down low single digits. But -- any kind of color on how you're kind of thinking about the cadence first half and second half and then even kind of beyond that? Any color there would be really greatly appreciated.

Yes. It's interesting. I mean the guidance was partly a result of the really strong finish to fiscal '26. So if we think about that quarter of '26. That's going to be a tricky fourth quarter for us in fiscal '27 a positive tailwind to '26, but then it makes it a harder fourth quarter for fiscal '27. Otherwise, we're guiding to flat to down. At the moment, listings are holding up well. But as we know, given the historical volatility month-to-month, quarter-to-quarter, it's probably a little bit early to try and think too much about phasing at this stage.

Our next question will be from Siraj Ahmed with Citigroup.

[indiscernible] First one, can you just touch on competitive dynamics? I noticed that your unique audience lead slipped a bit in the second half. Just keen to hear what you're seeing and how you're thinking about this. And second thing, in terms of AI, you're talking about new TAM and new addressable opportunities. Can you just elaborate on that?

And Andrew, in terms of yield growth for next year, I think about fourth quarter, if you exclude [indiscernible] would have been or so. It seems like -- as you said, luxury a bigger driver. Do you think FY '27 can be better than the fourth quarter as a baseline before [indiscernible]?

So I'll take the first 2. And so I'll start with the second one first. So look, in terms of TAM, it's early days with some of those product launches that we've got out in play. But I guess, particularly with the AI system, as those conversations with consumers evolve, then that will expose through those conversations, opportunities for us to explore. But if you think about the usual things around building pest inspections, et cetera, et cetera, I mean, yes, there's those opportunities that exist that we can see immediately, but that will evolve over time. In terms of traffic, I mean, we're extremely happy with where our traffic is at the moment, you would have seen in the slide deck, where we continue to do record traffic levels 12.5 million unique visitors a month coming to the site, nearly 150 million sessions.

And in terms of our traffic lead over our nearest competitor. I mean, it's exceptionally strong. It will go up and down a little bit month-over-month, but it's still exceptionally strong. And I guess that's probably how we think about it.

So -- it's interesting questions, when you think about the fourth quarter, your sense of the numbers is correct. Is it the mix a little bit different. So by yield for the fourth quarter in isolation with 11% and the mix was largely price, which is very material, but also penetration and add-ons [indiscernible] from the second most material and that was coming from IMAX and [indiscernible] materially in Luxe less material and then geo mix was negative 2% for the fourth quarter.

As we roll forward, I think your sense of the quantum of yield is probably a it's in line with our low double-digit guidance. And just I think the mix will be a little bit different. As I said, Luxe will be a larger contributor than AMAX penetration, perhaps less so this fiscal year and GeoMx will be potentially a drag at least at this early stage.

Next question will come from the line of Fraser Mcleish with MST.

Just a quick one for me. Just on Financial Services business, Can. And I think the banks are seeing pretty big drop-off in loan applications at the moment. So any help on how you're thinking about that business for '27 would be helpful.

Look, I mean, I would say to you that over the last couple of months, we sort of saw similar in terms of lead volumes and loan applications. What we're seeing now is, I guess, the gap that we saw a couple of months ago is starting to narrow. So I mean, I think what that translates to is that consumers, customers are starting to settle and they are coming back to loan applications, and we are gradually seeing improvements in application volumes. So I'd say a little bit early days, but we have definitely seen improvement there over recent weeks.

I'm showing no further questions, and I would like to hand the conference back over to Cam MacIntyre for closing remarks.

Excellent. Thank you, everyone, for joining the call today and look forward to catch up with you all over the course the next few days. Thanks a lot. Bye-bye.

Goodbye.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the REA Group Limited Third Quarter Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Alice Bennett, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Good morning, and welcome, everyone. My name is Alice Bennett, Head of Investor Relations, and I'd like to thank you for joining us to discuss REA Group's results for the third quarter ended 31st of March 2026.

Before we commence, I'd like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognize the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders, past, present and emerging.

This morning, you'll firstly hear from our CEO, Cam McIntyre, who will provide a brief business update. Then Andrew Cramer, REA's CFO, will talk to the financial highlights for the quarter. And following this, we'll be happy to take your questions.

And just as a reminder, before we get started, our quarterly numbers are top line results only, so we'll be restricted in the amount of details we can provide. With that, I will pass it to Cam to get us started.

Thanks, Alice, and welcome, everyone. REA has delivered an excellent third quarter result, underpinned by double-digit revenue growth across our Australian business and strong double-digit yield growth in our core residential business.

Looking at our results from core operations for the quarter, excluding M&A, which, as a reminder, it strips out the impact of sale of PropTiger, the shutdown of Housing Edge and the acquisition of iGuide, revenue was $398 million, an increase of 11%, and EBITDA, excluding associates, was $220 million, an increase of 16%.

Strong underlying fundamentals continue to support the property market, and supply kept pace with buyer demand. While global events and interest rate increases impacted broader economic sentiment, listing activity in Sydney and Melbourne was strong and nationally, listings were slightly up on prior year. In this balanced market, more Australians visited our platform than ever before, and our customers continue to turn to our market-leading products and services to ensure best results for their vendors.

In relation to our audience, we reached a new quarterly record in Q3 of 12.9 million visitors on average each month. Just under half these visitors used our platform exclusively. This means access to a large number of potential buyers, sellers and renters is exclusive to REA customers. Our immersive experiences ensure Australians continually return to our platform, and we achieved a new quarterly record of 150 million average monthly visits.

The value of our audience extends beyond scale though, and it ties into the deep engagement of our consumers. In Q3, properties tracked by their owners reached a milestone of 5 million, an increase of 16% on prior year. Seller leads increased 28% year-on-year, and we delivered an average of 2.6 million buyer inquiries to our customers each month.

Our consumer strategy is centered on delivering a personalized and immersive membership experience. Members are much more likely to perform a high-value action, which amplifies the value delivered to our customers. Our active membership base continues to grow, increasing 19% on the prior year.

In the quarter, we launched our new evolution of AI property search. Our new conversational search experience is now live to 50% of our web audience and 10% of our iOS app members. This intelligent search experience encourages consumers to take high-value actions such as sharing a listing or submitting an inquiry. Conversational search is going to continue evolving as we expand the number of topics covered, and that, in turn, will support a more detailed curated AI-powered companion experience for our consumers. It's also going to uncover valuable intent data for our customers.

Property buyers are increasingly seeking more immersive and informative search experiences, and we officially launched iGuide in Australia in March here. iGuide uses AI to identify property features and produces immersive 3D virtual tours, precise floor plans and reliable property measurement data. It's the market leader in Canada, and we're pleased with the early uptake in Australia. We're working closely with the industry on this and several large photography networks have signed up already. There are now more than 100 iGuide specialty cameras in market, which is ahead of our own expectations, and we're seeing the strong momentum continue.

Supporting our visualization strategy is the social media-style feed in our video discovery hub on the app home screen is deeply engaging our consumers. The new hub achieved a 22% growth in average monthly video viewers in Q3.

In relation to our customers and some highlights here, we saw record Premiere+ penetration, which underpinned double-digit yield growth in our residential business. We also achieved record audience maximizer penetration. We continue to roll out the next generation of AI-powered tools and services for our customers as well as offering education, support and training. As part of our broader Advantage AI program, we're also pleased to announce a customer hack day initiative that will take place in September. These hack days are core to our innovative culture that we have as a business. And for the first time, customers will submit ideas and work alongside our tech team with the aim of turning customer and industry-focused ideas into prototypes and working solutions in a matter of days.

During the quarter, we also launched a new AI-powered vendor campaign summary in our self-serve platform, Ignite, generating key campaign insights into our vendor-ready narrative within Ignite's vendor report. This is supporting agents in the clear communication of their campaign performance while reducing the manual reporting effort that's required.

We recently also started a pilot rollout in a new chat capability in Ignite called Campaign Assist, and this is exclusive to Premiere+ feature, and it combines consumer intent and automated evaluation model data to provide customers with strategic recommendations to boost the performance of a listing.

In recent weeks, we launched the AI-powered PropTrack via Impact model, which provides our customers with clear evidence of a direct link between a property sale and an realestate.com.au campaign. The new probability-based model assessed more than 1.3 million Australian properties sold over a 22-month period and analyzed more than 10 billion consumer data points. The data highlights that realestate.com.au attracts and engages the buyer for 9 in 10 homes listed on the platform that go on to sell. The combination of data scale, depth of audience, engagement and the new AI capability underpin the model, and it was independently reviewed and validated by Deloitte.

Delivering on our commitment to more choice, flexibility and value for our customers, we've introduced new packaged options and a suite of features as part of the FY '27 contract rollout. From July, the Video Discovery Hub will be increasingly valuable for customers with Premiere+ property walk-through videos set to feature on the prominent carousel. Highlighting the value in video, we know that serious buyers are almost 9x more likely to watch video content than other users and listings with vertical video generating more views and more inquiries.

Our commercial and new home businesses achieved double-digit revenue growth with record penetration of Elite Plus for our commercial customers and a pleasing improvement in new home -- in the new homes market.

Looking at financial services and momentum continues here. Business saw exceptional growth in submission volumes, a strong increase in settlements and an increase in the loan book. Showing the strength in the market and the value in our investment in Mortgage Choice, innovation and brand average submissions per day in February were the highest Mortgage Choice has ever seen.

As we've flagged previously, Housing.com is REA India's strategic priority. The app-first strategy continues to support Housing.com's leadership in app downloads in India with more than 50% of downloads sitting with our platform.

As I wrap up, I'd like to share a few comments on market conditions as we look ahead. After an extended period where demand exceeded supply, the Australian property market has become a more balanced and we're moving into a period of more normalized levels of buyer demand. The rebalance in the market likely reflects some uncertainty around global events, expected further interest rate rises and potential government tax policy changes. The momentum behind price growth is anticipated to moderate, and we may see that time to sell lengthens a little as vendors readjust price expectations to meet buyers.

As a business, we're incredibly well positioned in this more balanced market with agents and their vendors seeking to reach the largest and most engaged audience of property seekers and to differentiate their listings. We're focused on continuing to drive innovation, and our teams are embracing the capability and exciting opportunities presented by AI. Coupled with healthy underlying fundamentals supporting the market and strength in our market position, we're well placed to deliver further growth for the remainder of FY '26. And with that, I'd like to welcome you, Andrew, and hand over to you.

Thank you, Cam, and good morning, everyone. Can I first say thank you to you all for the warm welcome you've given me. I'm less than 3 months into this role, but I can genuinely say I'm excited by the growth pipeline in front of us and by the quality of the team around me.

REA has delivered an excellent Q3, driven by double-digit revenue growth across the residential, commercial, new homes and financial services businesses. Excluding the impact of M&A, group revenue for the third quarter increased 11% to $398 million. Operating expenses increased 5% to $178 million, and group EBITDA increased 16% to $220 million. Including the impact of M&A, revenue and EBITDA increased 6% and 11%, respectively.

Let me now take you through how each of our businesses performed for the quarter, starting with residential. Our residential business delivered its strongest quarter of the fiscal year with revenue growth of 12%, driven by double-digit yield growth and modest growth in listings. National new buy listings were up 1% for the quarter with the recent outperformance of Sydney up 4% and Melbourne up 7% continuing. Pleasingly, Q3 buy yield was up 14%. Buy yield was driven by a 7% average Premiere+ price rise, a strong contribution from add-ons, mainly from Audience Maximizer, but also from Luxe, an increase in subscription revenues, growth in overall depth and Premiere+ penetration and finally, geographical mix, which boosted yield by 1% in the quarter. This reflects the comparative strength of the Sydney and Melbourne listings markets.

The strong performance in the month of March also resulted in a 2% deferral of revenue into Q4, reflecting higher listings in the latter part of March compared to last year.

Our rent business saw continued revenue growth driven by a 6% average price rise and increased depth penetration, which was partly offset by a 2% decline in listings. Encouragingly, we also saw double-digit revenue growth for our commercial and New Homes businesses. Commercial revenue benefited from an average 7% price rise, increased depth penetration and higher listings, while New Homes revenue benefited from a 6% increase in project profile volumes, higher yield and higher growth in display revenues.

Financial Services momentum continued during the quarter with double-digit revenue growth. Revenue from the mortgages business benefited from settlements growth of 21% and increased productivity across our broker network. Revenue from the PropTrack data business was driven by growth in customer data contracts, including the agreement we have with key customer, Ray White.

Moving now to our international businesses. In the U.S., Move delivered its sixth consecutive quarter of revenue growth, up 10% in Q3. Revenue at Move was driven by higher sales of the premium Real Pro Select offering and revenue growth in new homes, seller and rentals.

Staying in North America, iGuide, which we consolidated on the 1st of October 2025, generated revenue of $5 million during the quarter. iGuide's local currency revenue increased 26% in Q3. Meanwhile, REA India's Housing.com saw local currency revenue declined by 3% in the quarter, reflecting continued yield pressure in a competitive market.

Turning now to operating expenses. Group core costs increased 1% or by 5% if you strip out the impact of M&A. In Australia, operating expense growth was 9%. COGS were a material driver of this growth, reflecting Audience Maximizer more than doubling in penetration versus the prior corresponding quarter. Excluding COGS, Australian operating expense growth was 6%. Marketing was the largest driver of cost growth in the quarter. As is often the case, the phasing of our marketing campaigns can result in lumpiness from quarter-to-quarter. Growth in Q3 fiscal '26 reflected the new Australian open sponsorship and consumer brand campaign, which was not in the prior corresponding period. Favorability in workforce costs offset the investment in technology, driven by data, AI and video. In India, Housing.com's operating costs were down 1% on a constant currency basis, reflecting the strategic reset and the simplified structure of that business.

Before I turn to the outlook, I just wanted to touch on REA's on-market share buyback program. The program was launched in February, reflecting the confidence we have in the long-term outlook for our business, the strong balance sheet position of the company and our disciplined approach to capital management. So far, we bought back a little under $76 million of the planned $200 million buyback at average prices below $160 per share. While we've been in blackout since the 1st of April, we look forward to being back in the market from next week.

Moving now to our fiscal '26 guidance. We expect buy yield to grow 13% for the full year. Our expectations for listings are unchanged. We're predicting a 1% to 3% decline for fiscal '26. April listings volumes were up 19% year-on-year with Melbourne increasing 20% and Sydney up 25%. This strong April performance partly reflects the easier comps that we will be cycling as we move through Q4 and into Q1 of next year. The group expects positive operating jaws in fiscal '26 for both Australia and the group. Our expectations for operating cost growth have improved with low to mid-single-digit growth now anticipated for the group, down from mid-single digits previously. And for Australia, we expect mid- to high single-digit cost growth down from high single digits previously. Our guidance for India is unchanged, and associate contributions are expected to marginally improve from fiscal '25 levels.

We are incredibly pleased with the performance we've delivered this quarter, and we're excited about the future of our business. As I touched upon at the top of the call, it has been a privilege to join a company in such a strong position with such a high-quality team. As a team, we remain focused on driving consumer engagement, driving increased value to our customers and driving growth across our portfolio of assets. As CFO, I will ensure we continue to invest to drive that future growth while managing costs and capital prudently. Thank you, operator. We will now take any questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is going to come from the line of Eric Choi with Barrenjoey.

I might pick on you today, Andrew, if that's right, just for a couple of numerical questions. Just on the first one, I was wondering if we could talk about the FY '27 yield and specifically, if you could confirm the quantum of the price increase? And also, I'm interested, given Sydney and Melbourne are quite elevated right now, if those geographies were to normalize back to historic levels, theoretically, what that geo mix drag would be? Ultimately, I'm just trying to put all those pieces together, and I'll make my own guesses on Luxe and everything else to try and figure out if you guys can deliver double-digit yield in '27, even if there was a geo mix drag.

Thanks, Eric. Thanks for picking on me first. The answer to your question on price, our fiscal '27 price increase is approximately 8%, so at the lower end of the 8% to 10% range you've noted in an earlier note. Geo mix is a really tough one. You know as well as me, it's a really tough one to predict. I mean the last couple of years, we've been a beneficiary of it. It's been plus 1% this year, about the same last year. Back in fiscal '23, it was negative 5%. And it has been elevated as a result of higher listings in Melbourne and Sydney. We won't get into whether it's going to be a drag on fiscal '27 at this stage because the elevation of Melbourne and Sydney continues, as you saw in the April numbers.

That's helpful. Just one more convoluted one for you. Sorry, Andrew. Like if I just take a step back and look at this result, Australia was really good, probably -- and obviously, your cost guidance is really good, and then India top line maybe a little bit softer versus what we were expecting. So I'm just trying to piece together the fourth quarter outlook versus third quarter. I think it's still really good for Australia, maybe just dragged down by India.

So just on the math, like can I just check, I'm not missing any of the key swing factors 4Q versus 3Q? And then there's probably 3. So listings growth, I think you're guiding for that to improve from 1% to, say, 3% to 4% based on the midpoint of your guidance. I don't know if you mentioned deferrals, but maybe deferrals were a drag in 3Q, maybe a couple of hundred basis points, so that could be an improvement as well. And then maybe the offset is that buy yield stepping down 1 to 2 percentage points in the fourth quarter. But like if you add up those 3 things, it still suggests residential revenue growth is potentially 4% better in the fourth quarter versus third quarter and maybe your group revenue growth could be 3 percentage points or more better. But I'm just wondering if I'm missing any key pieces there.

Thanks, Eric. You're really missing anything and your math is pretty good. If I go backwards up your list on buy yield, it does step down in the fourth quarter, and that's just a result of us lapping a really successful value and packaging rollout this time last year. So for the benefit of those who don't know, we're in market from about 6 weeks ago. And to the extent people take up the offers at that time, the clock starts ticking earlier than 1 July, and we had the benefit last year of Audience Maximizer, which doubled penetration. We had Luxe and we had subscription price increases. So that means it's just a comp issue with that stepping down in the fourth quarter.

Deferrals, you're correct on that. It was 2% in the third quarter. That was really driven by like a big uptick in listings in the latter part of March. It's probably because of the timing of Easter that brought campaigns forward. We've seen a strong April, and so we would expect that deferral to be there again in April. And it's -- when we think about listings guidance for May or June, it's uncertain. And so I think your math is not incorrect. But at the same time, what we're seeing in May is slower than what we saw in April. There's uncertainty around policy changes at a federal government level, there's interest rate uncertainty. And so at this stage, May and June are relatively less certain than obviously what we've delivered to date.

And our next question will come from the line of Entcho Raykovski with E&P.

My first question, I was hoping to drill into the lowered OpEx guidance. Are you able to talk about what the key drivers have been behind that lower OpEx guidance? I mean, is it efficiencies as a result of the rollout of AI tools internally? I'm very conscious that, that's something that a lot of people are focused on right now. And how does that lower OpEx guidance feed into your expectations for OpEx into FY '27? And in particular, do you see scope to deliver wider operating jaws? And I might wait for the second one after you answer this one.

That's another one for me. So thank you, Entcho. As we sort of entered the second half, we felt the market was a little bit more volatile, and so we really wanted to control the controllables. And the thing that we can control most at that point in the fiscal year is cost. And so we just characterize it as a general timing across the business, the sort of things that you can do with that much time to go in the fiscal year. I mean AI is something that we're adopting across the whole business. The uptake has been really very positive. We are seeing efficiencies in pockets. And as a collective, we're the beneficiaries of those efficiencies. I mean the question for us and something as a leadership team, Cam and I are thinking about with our broader ELT is that benefit gives us flexibility. Do we go faster? Do we drop it to the bottom line. At this stage, we're prioritizing going faster, putting more product to market and moving more quickly. As that relates to jaws, I mean, it gives us -- it certainly gives us optionality as we go forward. But I mean the thing that we have to remind ourselves is that there's an investment required to go faster. There's a technology investment. There's a token cost, which, at this stage, we probably don't think we're probably at a run rate cost of tokens. I think they're probably being subsidized. And so we're just careful not to become too aggressive in chasing efficiency at this point.

Okay. Cool. And then -- and also, I've got a yield question on '27. So in addition to that 8% price increase or circa 8% price increase you've just spoken about, what are the key new features that you expect to add to yield growth? I mean is it primarily the Luxe bundle, but you've obviously got some additional video features as well. And sort of what sort of take-up do you need of, let's say, the Luxe bundle, what sort of take-up do you need for it to make a meaningful difference?

Your mail is pretty good, Entcho. So the Luxe is really the major thing that will be additive in fiscal '27. I mean this year, we had the -- we were the beneficiaries of a subscription price increase, and so that's not repeating into fiscal '27. I mean AMax will continue to increase in penetration. But this year, we had the benefit -- we benefited from it almost doubling or thereabouts in penetration, and that's not going to repeat into the next fiscal year.

Okay. Sorry. And maybe if I can follow up with the very last one related to that. Can you give us any sense for where Luxe penetration is sitting now and where it could get to? I mean you probably can't provide the specifics, but any sort of very broad figures?

I mean what I would say, Entcho, is the rollout has gone very well through the last 6 or 8 weeks. The team is on track for the task that we set them, which is really pleasing. They have a -- we've got a really fantastic sales team, and they've done a great job in market, educating customers as to the benefits of Luxe. So we feel good about where it sits, but we're not going to get into the exact penetration or what our expectations of that penetration is either.

Our next question will come from the line of Sriharsh Singh with Bank of America.

Andrew...

We just lost you there, Sriharsh.

Sorry for that. Apologies. A couple of questions from my side, probably a little bit more strategic and long term. One, there is a little bit of investor concerns around the rise of off-portal transactions given the rise of LLMs. And my question to you is, are you seeing any unusual increase in off-portal transactions in recent months? And how do you think about monetizing more of those in the future? Any plans around that? Or any commentary would be super useful.

Second question is around India given -- and would love your first thoughts on that business in a sense that obviously, there's a significant value creation opportunity in the long run if the business succeeds. And in that context, in that long-term context, are you okay with the current level of losses around $35 million, $40 million to achieve that long-term optionality? Or do you plan for a quicker breakeven of that business?

Thanks, Sriharsh. I'll take both of those time around. So I'll start with the second one first. So I guess with India, we all understand that the size of the market and the potential of the TAM that exists in India. I think we're probably not happy with where the business is at in terms of profitability. But it's gone through a hell of a lot of change in the last 12 months or so with new management team, with the exit of PropTiger and Housing Edge. And so there's been quite a bit of a reset inside the business as well. So look, I mean, the team is doing a good job in terms of thinking about bringing new product to market, whether that be through AI-based conversational search and so on like we have. But this all takes time.

So in terms of acceleration of the EBITDA losses and trying to reach profitability quicker. Clearly, that would be something we'd like to see. But it's a question of the market's ability for us to move that quickly. And so I think as a business, we're moving as quickly as we possibly can, but it's not always going to go the way we want it to in the time frame that we want it to go in.

The other part of your question was just in relation to what we're seeing with the premarket type activity. And I'd say to you that we're not seeing any activity that's outside of historical norms. And we all know that in markets where there's tighter supply, you tend to see a little bit more activity. And then in markets where there's less or more supply, you tend to see a little bit less activity. So we're still seeing behaviors within those normal ranges.

I guess as far as we go as a business, we're always looking at innovation and ways in which we can meet the expectations of vendors and deliver them the biggest possible audience and generate them the maximum possible outcome along with our customers. So I wouldn't say that we're not thinking about things. But at the moment, behaviors seem to be within the normal realms of activity.

Our next question will come from the line of Siraj Ahmed with Citigroup.

Cam, maybe one for you to start off with. Just in terms of that rollout of conversational search, I would thought it's a bit slower than expected, only 50% of web audience and 10% of iOS. Anything holding you back there? And more importantly, are you seeing different user behaviors? I mean, maybe more research being done through the REA portal? Just keen if there's any change in behavior? And then I have a second question I'll ask after.

Yes. No worries. Thanks for the question. Look, we're really happy with the way conversational search is rolling out. We're doing it in a thoughtful manner to ensure that we're maximizing the experience of our consumers. I'd say the way we sort of think about search is we're trying to move from utility-based search to more of a companion-based search experience for our consumers. And I think what we're seeing as we continue to roll this out, and you got to think we're trying to evolve 30 years of learned search behavior. And this sort of stuff takes time. But what we're doing is as we roll out, we're looking at the insights and the data that we're generating. And clearly, we can see better perspectives around intent. There's greater connectivity to our financial services products and so on. And the -- I guess, the insights that we're able to pass on to our customers is enhanced as well through the whole process. So we're doing all of that.

At the same time, we're looking at the data that's inside the conversational search and continue to build on that. And what that does, ultimately, I think, is it creates different opportunities for us as a business as we go on. So I think I'm really excited about it. Are we moving quickly enough? I think we're moving quickly. And certainly, as you can see from our audience and engagement stats, everything is heading very, very nicely in the right direction. But we want to do it in, as I said, in a thoughtful way.

So just following up. So that's interesting. So you're saying you're actually seeing greater sort of lead potential into mortgages and stuff like that based on the conversation search. Okay. Interesting.

Second one, just maybe one for Andrew, just on numbers. Just in terms of the negative 1 to negative 3 listing volume for the full year, and you said May has been a bit weaker. I mean, given April is up 19%, I think negative midpoint, I think May and June has be flat. So what are you seeing in May that you're a bit concerned in terms of outlook?

I wouldn't characterize it as concerned, Siraj. What we saw in March was a pull forward of listings due to Easter. We kind of think April probably benefited from a pull forward of listings due to the broader market volatility. Often uncertainty leads to bring their campaigns forward and get into market sooner due to the uncertainty in the future. What we're seeing in May is it's not at the pace of April. That's for sure. And I think as we roll into the back end of May, we'll have a better sense of May and obviously, June too. But at this stage, it's sort of too early to be more definitive in our guidance for May and June.

And just be clear, May is not down year-on-year. It's just not as strong as April, right?

That's exactly right. Well, sorry. And also, we're a week or 2 we get these details every day, and I love 2:00 every day because I get the new listings numbers. But what I've learned in the short 3 months I've been here is things do swing very, very quickly. So that's where May sits a week in, but we'll see where it ends up.

Our next question is going to come from the line of Lucy Huang with UBS.

I've also got 2 questions. So just a follow-up on the conversational search. Like are you able to quantify so far, what is the impact that you're seeing on leads? Like are you seeing like a multiplier effect that you're being able to deliver to vendors at this point? Or any kind of qualitative assessment on the quality of the leads? And I guess over time, you talked about opportunity to conversational search, like any thoughts on whether monetization models could change or could be additive over time?

And then just my second question is on AI costs. Just wondering if you can give us a bit of color as to what proportion of the cost base currently constituting? And I think the expectation is that LLM token costs will increase over time, so any thoughts or strategies you're implementing right now to over time keep a lead on that cost pressure?

Yes. Thanks. I'm happy to take all 3. So look, in terms of tech costs, and I'll start at the bottom. Clearly, there's a reshaping of our cost base over time, and tech does become a slightly bigger part of our cost base over time.

With tokens, Andrew mentioned tokens being subsidized. I wouldn't say tokens are a material part of our cost base at the moment, but we will manage our token costs over time. So I'm not expecting to see any significant change in the immediate short term there, but it will just be managed as we continue to become more an AI prime business and as we continue to change the way in which we're bringing product to market through AI.

Around that conversational search, you asked about that just in terms of monetization, can we monetize in different ways using conversational search. I think there -- it's early days on that. Ultimately, our ambition as a business is to try and help vendors get the outcomes that they're trying to get. And our customers' agents clearly try to get properties to market faster for them. And if our search experience through conversational search can help facilitate that, then that's obviously a good thing for REA. And so that's -- there's somewhat of a focus around that.

In terms of quality of leads, I would say our lead quality is exceptional in any case. And you can see by the numbers in the deck or in the release in the ASX, just the sort of numbers that we're generating. Clearly, though, over time, what we'd love to see is more insight, more intent data that we're getting from search that helps qualify where potential seller leads and buyer leads are in their journey. And then that obviously gives us the opportunity to help them with their experience, but also support our agents. So I think lead quality is good today. It will get better with conversational search cost around tech that will continue to reshape and evolve along with the rest of our cost base. And so I think we're -- that probably answers all 3.

Can I just have one follow-up on the quality of leads? Like do you think agents are sophisticated enough on the buyer lead side to know which -- whether REA is delivering improving quality? Because I guess feedback we get is agents want all leads even if they're not high intent. But do you think they're sophisticated enough to understand the difference and then therefore, this presents further monetization opportunities down the track for REA?

Yes. I don't see leads as a source of monetization. But in terms of the agent experience and how do we get better quality leads to agents, I think in terms of the technology that we're looking at, at the moment and what's available with artificial intelligence, the ability that we have to prequalify buyers using technology before they reach the agent and to provide agents with some insight before they pick up the phone to talk to the potential buyer, I think all those insights are highly valuable. And what they do is they mean that the agent can work on other parts of their day that are going to deliver them consequential benefit. So I think for us, quality of lead is probably in those realms as well would be how we think about it.

Our next question is going to come from the line of Bob Chen with JPMorgan.

A couple of questions for me. Just one, you sort of referenced it a little bit earlier. We've got a little bit of uncertainty with the federal budget coming through next week with potential CGT and negative gearing changes. Have you guys modeled anything internally to look at how this might impact listings both on maybe a near-term basis where you see a bit of pull forward versus maybe a more medium-term basis where you could see maybe a reduction in volumes?

Thanks for the question, Bob. Great question. I think if we knew exactly what the federal government was going to do with both CGT and negative gearing, what was being grandfathered, what wasn't being grandfathered, I think it will give us a better idea.

At the moment, I think it's too early to tell, and we just need to see the detail of the federal budget to come down before we can sort of start to show what that looks like post that. But ultimately, for us, any change that brings volume forward is not a bad thing. It's a good thing for us. But also, we're conscious of anything that negatively or positively impacts the new supply of property as well. So I think, yes, like I said, too early to tell, but we'll know pretty soon.

Yes. Okay. Perfect. And then I think earlier in the call, you sort of mentioned pretty good adoption rates of iGuide so far. Can you give us a little bit more in terms of early adoption stats of iGuide across Australia and what the opportunity might look like longer term for that business?

Yes, sure. So look, as we said, we're very happy with how iGuide is going. It's only been in market since March. There's over 100 iGuides that are now in market working hard and delivering great outcomes to agents and vendors.

In terms of the product itself, we're very happy with how the product is performing. The scope of market opportunity is large. There's probably between 1,000 and 2,000 photographers for us to be working with. And so there's a lot of scope for further growth. So I guess it will take some time. We've got a team focused on it. We're doing a lot in terms of client education and bringing them up to speed. We know that property buyers, as you saw in the release, they love this sort of content and we'll engage heavily with it. So the more we can get into market and the sooner we can get into market, I think the better.

Our next question is going to come from the line of Tom Beetle with Jarden.

Just a couple of questions on yield. Just the first one, just a quick clarification on the yield for Q4. I mean, obviously, the step down given the tougher comps well understood. But are you assuming any reversal of the revenue deferrals in your guidance?

Firstly, just a quick one.

Connected again. No, our forecast doesn't forecast any deferral into the fourth quarter. So you will not just in your note that's come across the desk, there was a 2% deferral in Q3 that will land into Q4. We're not currently forecasting a further deferral from Q4 into the following fiscal year.

Got you. And then just on the next year's yield, probably a follow-up on Eric's question in a way. But just can you just give us a feel for what you're seeing from agents on the contract -- sorry, on their contracts for next year? Like are you seeing any changes in the mix of tiers or add-ons that they're signing up for that could help give us a feel for, I guess, what those factors can sort of add to your yield?

Yes. It's a fair question. Great question, Tom. At the same time, it's pretty early in the rollout. So we're sort of 6 or 7 weeks into the rollout. We've seen good uptake. We've seen increased penetration of Premiere+. Luxe has done well and so has Audience Maximizer. I think that our customers are really interested and like the video add-ons that have been rolled out at the moment and will kick in from the 1st of July. But it's probably too early to give you much more guidance around the breakup of our view of fiscal '27.

And our next question is going to come from the line of Roger Samuel with Jefferies Australia.

I've got 2 questions as well. First one, just on your free cash flow, it was only up 2% versus EBITDA, which is up 12%. Is there anything in the quarter that we should be aware of, maybe some sort of lumpy CapEx or some one-off tax payments?

Great question, Roger, and I like you pick that up. No, there's nothing lumpy, no, nothing to do with CapEx specifically. It's just the timing of working capital movements. So you will have seen that free cash flow has been outpacing EBITDA. It didn't in Q3 due to that working capital movement, but it will -- it should well do so for the full year.

Okay. Got it. Second question, just on iGuide, you mentioned it, I think, one of the key features in FY '27 is video. Just wondering how different is iGuide from your competitor products such as Matterport. And we understand that you outsource the photographers. And will that impact your margin as well going forward?

No. So in terms of function, I mean, they're pretty similar. Technology is probably a little slightly different, but in terms of function, they're pretty similar. In terms of time to deliver an iGuide, from what I hear, it's a little bit quicker, but fairly similar. In terms of margin impact, I mean, clearly, our approach to this is to partner with the entire industry and to work with the industry. And we know that agents and photographers have a very strong and often long-term partnership. And so we want to get the great product that iGuide is into the hands of those that are working for our agents. But it's -- the way we're approaching it, it's an incremental source of revenue for us. So it's based on a per-iGuide execution. So therefore, margin impact, yes, it will have a margin impact. It has a labor cost associated with it as well, but it's all upside.

Our next question comes from the line of Fraser McLeish with MST Marquee.

Great. Just a quick one on, Cam, and slightly related to the last question, I guess. But just is there any sort of substantial changes that you're seeing on the ground from Domain CoStar that are worth mentioning? I'm thinking things like a big step-up in marketing or sales investment or anything like that, that's maybe changing the landscape a little bit.

Thanks, Frase. Great question. Look, I mean, the short answer is no. I mean if you look at our audience and engagement data, you can see we're going from record to record. So very happy in terms of our own performance.

Marketing-wise, we're continuing to invest heavily in marketing and seeing great outcomes for our investment that we're making there. But overall, I would say, haven't seen or noticed any material change in competitive landscape.

And our last question is going to come from the line of Eric Choi with Barrenjoey.

Just a quick follow-up just because we were just asking about the cost. So I was wondering if I could have a second stab at it. And like you've obviously opened up the Australian jaws to low single digit to mid-single digit now maybe in FY '26 on kind of mid-single digit to high single-digit Aussie cost growth.

And then just thinking about that going into next year, like the AU revenue growth is probably unlikely to accelerate just because you're doing 13, 14 by yield this year. So to the extent that you kind of want to maintain that level of jaws or even slightly under, it sort of suggests mid-single-digit to high single-digit AU cost growth is our kind of baseline cost growth for FY '27. I wonder if that logic is okay.

Eric, I appreciate the question, and thank you. It's probably just a little bit early for us to be guiding on cost growth for fiscal '27. What we would say is we feel very comfortable with the levers we have that give us flexibility in our cost base, whether that be our ability to use our offshore centers in Manila and Cyber City, the benefits of AI that gives us flexibility to manage cost. And there has been a lot of focus on cost on this call. And I guess you would expect that given we lowered cost guidance. But we want to make sure everyone is really clear on that we'll continue to invest in the business to drive the top line because that's really the most important thing that we can do. And of course, we'll continue to manage jaws in a prudent way.

Sorry to badger you, Andrew. Very helpful.

No, I appreciate it. And for everyone, it's Eric Choi as well because I think you misintroduced there, mate.

I would like to now hand the conference back over to Cam McIntyre for closing remarks.

Thank you very much. Thanks, everyone, for joining the call this morning and look forward to catching up with you over the coming days, weeks. Thank you very much.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the REA Group Limited Half Year 2026 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Alice Bennett, Head of Investor Relations. Ma'am, please go ahead.

Good morning, and welcome, everyone. My name is Alice Bennett, Head of Investor Relations, and I'd like to thank you for joining REA Group's 2026 Half Year Results Presentation. For commence, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of country throughout Australia and recognize the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to elders past and present. So today, you'll hear from REA's CEO, Cameron McIntyre; and Janelle Hopkins, REA's CFO. Ken will talk to our overarching financial performance and strategic highlights for the half -- he will then hand over to Janelle to talk to our financial results in more depth. And then following this, we'll, of course, be happy to take your questions. With that, I will pass to an to get started.

Thank you very much, Ali, and good morning, everyone. Look, as I usually do, as I'm stepping through the slide deck, I'll just mention each slide as I get to it, just so you can keep up. So look, I mean, to begin with AR's delivered a good first half result underpinned by double-digit residential yield growth. It was the half that saw new AI-led experiences for consumers, product enhancements for customers, record audiences and growth in our market leadership position. Overall, the Australian property market landscape remained healthy with strong demand across the country and improvements in Sydney and Melbourne listings in Q2.

So let's start with Slide 4 and just looking at our financial results. So for the half, and we saw revenue up 5% on PCP to $916 million. EBITDA, excluding associates, up 6% on PCP to $569 million, and net profit after tax up 9% to $341 million. Boards also determined to pay a fully franked interim dividend of $1.24 per share, which is a 13% increase on PCP. And in addition, we've also announced today an on-market share buyback of up to $200 million, and that reflects REA's strong balance sheet, the confidence we have in our future outlook and the balanced approach we have to capital management, enabling us to return surplus capital to shareholders while continuing to retain flexibility to invest in growth opportunities as they arise.

So before I move into our operational highlights, I'd just like to touch on market conditions. So looking at Slide 6 and listing volumes in Sydney and Melbourne kept pace with very strong prior year comps, while volume in our smaller capital cities softened. Nationally, we are seeing a 2-speed market resulted in a decline in new buy listings, which were down 6% for the half. As you can see in the chart on the left-hand side, listing volumes in the December quarter strengthened against the softer comps with Melbourne and Sydney leading the charge here. And the predominantly steady interest rate environment, that helps support the buoyant levels of demand that we saw with buyer inquiries surging to 4-year highs across the nation.

So let's jump into Slide 8, and looking at our numerous H1 highlights. And it was a transformative half. Our technology. We rapidly extended our AI capability. We delivered excellent new experiences and products, which we'll talk through a little bit more as we step through the presentation. Supporting our visualization strategy, we acquired a 61% stake in Canadian-based iGUIDE in October, last year. And in India, we strategically refocused the business on Housing.com.

Our personalized and immersive experiences were key to the record audience levels that we saw and deep consumer engagement with 38% year-on-year growth in seller leads for the half, and we achieved a record Premier Plus debt penetration in residential and record Elite Plus penetration in commercial, which was fantastic.

On to Slide 9 and just taking a closer look at our record audience levels and high-quality engagement. As you can see here, more people than ever visited our flagship site, realestate.com.au, record average of 12.7 million people visited the platform each month, and we achieved a record $146.1 million average monthly visits. But look, the real value is in a very large audience that lies with our deep engagement of our consumers. And looking back over the past 2 years, our audiences continue to consistently extend each half, and more importantly, key engagement metrics have also strengthened as well. Like our active member base, the number of properties tracked by owners and sellers and buyer inquiry volumes as well.

The strength of our brand, the quality of our experiences and access to unique data and content ensures Australians continually return to and spend more time on realestate.com.au than any other property site in the country.

Looking at Slide 10, and I'm sure most of you have seen this 1 before, but REA's purpose is to change the way the world experiences property. And our strategy centers on engaging the largest consumer audience delivering superior value to our customers, and leveraging unique data and insights as we expand our core business and build next-generation marketplaces.

Moving on to Slide 11, and you've heard us say this before as well that REA has been investing and innovating with AI for some time. It's a clear strategic focus and a significant opportunity. It's embedded in our existing strategy as an enabler, that's enhancing the execution and supporting our delivery of product.

Our unparalleled audience and proprietary data provides strong foundations and unique leverage for harnessing AI as we continue to change the way people buy, sell and rent property. AI has beefed across all of our operations. We've delivered several key AI-led initiatives and partnerships in the last half, which I'll talk to you a little bit more about in a moment.

So let's turn to Slide 12 and just talk a little bit about consumer experience. And during the half, after a successful 12-month trial, we've where we're progressively rolling out natural language search, which is now available to half our website visitors. This new way of search, it really offers consumers a choice between traditional search with filters map or natural language search.

In terms of the next evolution of AI search, a conversational search trial is running on realestate.com.au. And that's now live for 10% of our web audience. And for those of you that are interested in having a look at that, you can contact Alice and she can give you some directions on how to get on to that one. But -- this really is an intelligent search experience that's going to encourage consumers to take action, such as saving or sharing a listing. And it also may encourage consumers to think outside the set filters. So I mean, for example, if you're looking for a property for sale in quit the tennis court, let's say, and there aren't any -- well, search results using this sort of search engine may result in you looking at large properties with big enough backyards to install on your own and estimate the cost for an upgrade, for instance.

So level of intent data available through conversational search will increase exponentially and this is going to be incredibly valuable to customers.

In the middle of that slide there, you can see supporting our visualization strategy to engage consumers in a new way. And we launched a great new video hub in November. And on the right-hand side of the slide there, you'll see we launched our new AR led conversational system, which is a great tool designed to support owners to better understand their real estate valuation.

Let's also now look at Slide 13 and just talking a little bit about our customers. And we saw record Premier Plus penetration support yield growth in our core residential business. During the half, we introduced the serious buyer metric exclusive to Premier Plus listings. And this metric is powered by PropTrack. And what it does is it analyzes hundreds of behavioral signals to identify consumers showing purchase intent and that predictive score empowers agents with data to optimize campaign strategy and enhance their vendor conversations that they have.

Our audience extension offering audience maximizer. I mean that was invigorated in 2025 and new features, price points and additional value helped drive record penetration in the half with that product. And on the right-hand side of the slide there, you'll see we've added additional value to our high-performance listing solution, Lux, which is proving to have market appeal, which is great, and we're seeing its penetration continue to build as well.

On to Slide 14, and the value in our Pro subscriptions is in both enhanced brand exposure and access to exclusive products and tools that help generate new business. Agency groups have recognized the value that we have in Pro with a number of customer groups signing enterprise wide pro agreements now. And in addition, Australia's largest agency group, Ray White was the was the first customer to access our new Market Intelligence data suite in December. And that offering is enabling agencies to better benchmark with insight into market share and conversation trends or conversion trends or, I should say.

Underpinning value for our customers is access to Ignite, and the self-service platform we have here is designed to bring deep insights, tools and leads together into the 1 place. Monthly Active Ignite use increased 14% on PCP. And in the first example of generative AI in Ignite -- during the half, we introduced AI smart summary for leads. And what that does is it provides a quick seller lead insights to help customers have more informed conversations with property owners.

Now on to Slide 15 and realcommercial.com.au delivered record audiences with 2.9 million Australians visiting the platform on average each month, which was up 90% on the prior year. And our top-tier product, which is Elites achieved record penetration and there's been strong uptake of Elite Plus Unlimited, which offers unlimited days on site. The value in Ignite's continued continue to increase for commercial customers. We saw a 59% PCP growth in monthly active users.

In November, we also acquired Nobalytics, and that offers a unique view of demographics with real-time lifestyle and mobility data. Both Nabalytics and air lytics are really good opportunities for our commercial business.

Turning to Slide 16, and just talking about our financial services and improved market conditions, product innovation and brand investment delivered, good revenue growth. submission volumes continue to increase, and they flowed through to a pleasing increase in settlement numbers. Enhancements for finance experience supported a 26% PCP growth in realestate.com.au generated broker leads in a good demonstration of the quality of these leads. The submissions from REA leads were also up 32% on PCP.

We also continue to invest in our core broking platform and in AI training and tools, and they delivered ongoing value and supported productivity improvement for our brokers. And this includes access to Google Gemini, which is supporting brokers to efficiently automate their processes. From a consumer perspective, in partnership with Athena Home Loans, Mortgage Choice launched a new bridging finance solution called Freedom Move in the half, and that solution is designed to simplify the complex and costly process of buying and selling.

On to Slide 17, and look, AI is clearly embedded with an REA strategy as you're seeing through this presentation. And our team, along with our key partnerships and investments are really, really significant enablers and continue to integrate AI across the business. The business is evolving to an AI primed company or AI prime company in terms of thinking and adoption. We're focused on empowering our people with the right tools and skills to harness the technology and boost capability, productivity and drive to efficiencies are also incredibly important. And this focus is delivering really strong results. Across the business, around 90% of our Australian employees have completed foundational AI training. And 85% of our team regularly uses AI, our internal AI assistant.

We're seeing very strong adoption in our global tech team as well and 90% of our global tech team are leveraging AI daily.

Look at a number of recent investments providers also with deeper AI and data capability. This includes our U.K.-based AI property portal ditty and the Canadian-based iGUIDE business that I just mentioned. We're also really pleased to be partnering with global leaders in AI and have them help power some of our new ALD products and experiences.

So looking at Slide 18, and demonstrating our accelerated innovation. This slide really highlights recently delivered AI products, experiences and tech capability along with training support and tools for our customers and brokers. AI-led surge and immersive experiences on our platforms are engaging consumers in completely new ways, and these experiences not only offer property seekers more choice, flexibility and personalization. They also unlock rich consumer and market insights underpinning customer value as well.

And what's to come is really exciting. AI is going to continue to evolve, and we'll be very thoughtful in how we deliver that capability over time, too.

In the coming months, consumers can expect to see deeper personalization with enhancements to conversational search, and exclusive content and video. Our customers can expect to see powerful AI integration into our self-service Ignite platform. And data and technology that underpin our products and experiences will strengthen and the foundation REA has to leverage in AI.

So turning to our international businesses. And as we flagged previously, Housing.com's REA India's strategic priority and is now solely focused there on moving forward. Our first strategy continues to deliver positive results with Housing.com continuing to lead app downloads in India. Focused improvements on the platform. We've also placed more relevant properties in front of the right consumers, which supported a 20% year-on-year growth in leads delivered to customers in the second quarter. We've also evolved our depth model as well with the introduction of a new top tier subscription product called Ultra, which provides customers with superior listing branding.

Looking at Slide 21, we announced the acquisition of our controlling stake in Canadian-based Planet, which is the maker of iGUIDE in October. iGUIDE what that does, it is AI to identify property features and produces immersive 3D virtual tours precise floor plans and reliable property measurement data. It's the market leader in Canada with around 25% of all listings sold in the country in 2025 featuring an iGUIDE. Canadian revenue grew 23% in half 1, with strong growth in each of its 4 key markets, which are residential, insurance, construction and commercial.

And the success of the business in Canada points to the opportunity that we have here in Australia where video and interactive content will become standard in property advertising. In the Australian market, the early signs are really strong with the first sales to customers in recent weeks, and we've been receiving really great positive feedback.

In the U.S., REA has a 20% stake in Move, operator realtor.com. Really introduced a number of innovative products and experiences in the half, including fly around, which provides consumers with a new way to explore neighborhoods from above, which is very cool. REA and Move are also collaborating on AI strategy amongst other things to facilitate faster delivery and reusability of AI capability across both the Australian and United States markets.

Before I hand over to Janelle, I'd just like to share a quick few comments on the market as we look ahead. And I guess, ongoing strength in employment levels and population growth, they really continue to drive strong demand nationally, and they really contribute to the health that we have in the Australian property market. And while we saw an increase in interest rates this week, the prospect of rising rates was already widely flagged, and the underlying fundamentals of the market remain very strong.

Supply has improved in Melbourne and Sydney with limited stock in smaller capital cities, resulting in some vendors delaying their listings. Anecdotally, across the country, our customers are telling us that they're seeing very good numbers coming through open for inspections, which aligns with that view of a buoyant of demand that we're seeing.

Into the second half, we will continue to drive innovation, and it's an exciting time with AI presenting new opportunities and our team is embracing this capability, coupled that with the ongoing health in the property market, and we're well positioned to drive further growth for the remainder of FY '26.

And just before I hand over to Janelle for more detail on our results, it is her final result with the business. And I'd just like to acknowledge her service and achievements as CFO, and thank her for her outstanding contribution to REA over those years. So thank you, Janelle, and over to you.

Thanks, Cam, and good morning, everyone. REA has delivered a good result with strong buyer yield growth in the residential business despite lower listings. From our core operations, revenue increased 5% to $916 million. Operating expenses increased 3% to $347 million. EBITDA, excluding the results from our associates was $569 million, up 6%, and the group delivered NPAT of $341 million, up 9%.

Our half year result includes the consolidation of iGUIDE, the divestment of PropTiger and the exit of housing edge from the second quarter. Excluding those items, on a like-for-like basis, revenue and operating expenses increased 8% and NPAT increased 10%. The group results from core operations differ from reported statutory results with a number of one-off items excluded. On Slide 37, we provide a summary of the reconciliation between the core and statutory results.

Turning to our Australian residential business, which has had another strong half, delivering 7% revenue growth despite lower listings. National buyer listings declined 6% in the half, improving from an 8% decline in Q1 to a 3% decline in Q2 as comps became easier. However, as Cam discussed earlier, we saw a 2-speed market during the half, with Melbourne and Sydney both flat and up year-on-year in the second quarter, while markets like Brisbane and Perth were down 12% and 20%, respectively. Fire yield was strong, up 14% for the half. driven by a 7% average Premier Plus price rise, growth in add-ons, AMAX in particular, increased subscription revenues and increased depth penetration with a 1% positive impact from GeoMx. Excluding GMX, controllable yield growth was 13%.

Our rent business saw continued growth with revenue driven by high single-digit yield growth, partly offset by a 2% decline in listings.

The following slide shows both the penetration and mix of paid debt listings in the residential business. And while it's still early days for Lux, penetration doubled from FY '25 to the first half '26, and is tracking in line with our expectations. We continue to see Lux take-up across properties of all ways with nearly 2/3 of Lux listings on properties less than $3 million.

Commercial and New Homes revenue increased 10% to $121 million. Commercial revenue increased by 9%, with yield growth driven by an average 7% price rise and increased depth penetration and listings broadly flat. And New Homes revenues were up 11% on the prior year, the first time in 5 years, we're seeing double-digit growth for this business. This was driven by increased project profile volumes and average yield and higher display revenues. Other revenue was up 8% to $35 million, driven by growth in media display from increased spend from our direct customers and growth for campaign agent as the business continued to grow customer numbers.

Please note PropTrack data revenues, which used to sit in other and are largely generated from financial institutions have now been included in financial services to align with an internal restructure. A reconciliation is provided in the appendix on Slide 40.

On to Financial Services, which had an excellent half with revenue up 11% to $58 million and EBITDA increasing 14%. We saw double-digit growth for both our Mortgage Choice business and PropTrack. Mortgage Choice revenues were up 12%, benefiting from a 14% increase in settlements and continued improvements in broker productivity, partially offset by higher broker payout rates. Pleasingly, submissions were up 24% in the first half, which suggests settlement growth should remain strong in the second half. In our PropTrack business, we grew revenue 11% through new customer data contracts.

Turning to our India and North American businesses. In India, Housing.com revenues were flat at $26 million for the half or up 3% on a constant currency basis, with customer growth and improved monetization in our Tier 2 cities, offset by continued competition in pricing and packaging, which has negatively impacted Housing.com's yields. India operating costs for Housing.com increased 3% or 6% in constant currency, which reflects the growth in tech costs due to license price rises and increased data usage partly offset by lower employee costs as the cost base was reviewed post the business simplification. Housing.com EBITDA loss was $19 million.

Moving to North America. As Cam mentioned, we acquired iGUIDE, which was consolidated from October '25. It generated revenue of $6 million, with underlying like-for-like growth in half 1 of 23% and was broadly EBITDA neutral. In the U.S., Move's revenue growth has accelerated, up 10% year-on-year, driven by higher sales of its real close select premium offering and continued revenue growth in seller, new homes and rentals. And pleasingly, lead volumes turned positive, up 5% in the half and up 13% in the second quarter. Move's equity accounted contribution was a loss of $10 million, a $1 million improvement on the prior year. And for more information on Move, please refer to the News Corp results release.

On the next slide is our core operating jaws. In Australia, Jaws were closed by 1% and with revenue growth of 8% and core operating cost growth of 9%. Australia operating cost growth reflected a number of key factors. The largest driver was employee costs impacted by wage inflation, and increased headcount driven by investment in strategic initiatives. This was followed by COGS, which increased due to more than doubling in our audience maximizer penetration, higher marketing costs in part due to the timing of Ready 25, which was not in the prior year and spend on the Ashes and our new Australian open sponsorship, and technology costs, which increased due to price increases of licenses and investments in AI tech. At a headline level, group jaws were opened by 2% with revenues growing by 5% and OpEx by $3 million, and on an underlying basis, draws were flat with revenue and operating costs both at 8%.

We've had a strong and consistent track record of continued investment in product development and platform health to drive better consumer experiences and deliver more value to our customers. You've seen this over the last 5 years with Australian CapEx growing 14% per annum compound. In half 1, this investment included a number of new products and experiences across all lines of business with a focus on AI, video and platform health. CapEx to revenue was 7% in the first half, and we anticipate a rate close to the middle of our 7% to 9% target range for the full year. FY '26 depreciation and amortization is expected to be in the range of $138 million to $147 million, modestly lower than our previous guidance due to the exiting of Housing Edge in India.

Turning to our cash position. We ended the half with a strong closing cash balance of $478 million. The group delivered operating cash flows of $373 million which allowed us to continue to invest in the business organically through M&A and continue to deliver strong shareholder returns in the form of increased dividends. The FY '26 interim dividend grew 13% to $1.24 per share, with DPS outpacing NPAT growth as we increased returns to shareholders in the form of a higher payout ratio. In addition, as Cam mentioned earlier, we have today announced an on-market share buyback of up to $200 million. Our balance sheet is incredibly healthy, and we believe we have the right balance going forward of returning capital to shareholders and flexibility for future growth ambitions should the right opportunities arise.

Finally, on the FY '26 outlook. While comparables will become easier as we progress through the second half, the group now expects National residential buy listing volumes to decline 1% to 3%, reflecting larger-than-expected year-to-date declines in the Perth and Brisbane markets. January listing volumes were down 8% year-on-year with Melbourne and Sydney declining 1%. The group anticipates 12% to 14% residential buyer yield growth with the magnitude of growth potentially impacted by GeoMx movements across the remainder of the year. Positive group operating jaws are targeted with Australian jaws expected to be open modestly. Expectations for mid-single-digit operating expenses growth is unchanged and reflecting high single-digit growth for Australia, the consolidation of iGUIDE, divestment of PropTiger and exiting housing edge. On an underlying basis, high single-digit cost growth is expected.

And India and Associates guidance is also unchanged, with India EBITDA losses expected to be in the range of $40 million to $45 million and contributions from associates losses expected to be marginally improved in FY '26 compared to FY '25.

In summary, we are very pleased with this result. We continue to execute our strategy, deliver on the things in our control and invest prudently for the long term. The whole team is excited by the new opportunities we see, leveraging AI to enhance our consumer, customer and employee experiences.

It's great to have Cameron firmly under the desk, and I've known Andrew Kramer for over 6 years now, and I'm confident he will do an excellent job. I have loved every minute of my time at REA and will really miss the incredible talent across the whole company with a special shout-out to my finance team. I will see most of you over the next few days on the roadshow, so I look forward to catching up with you all then.

I'll stop here. Operator, can we now please open the line for questions?

[Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from the line of Lucy Huang with UBS.

Thank you, -- and -- that's Kanthal and all the best for the new chapter ahead. I've got 2 questions. So firstly, the cost growth guidance is unchanged, but sterling Jaws did narrow by in the first half. And I understand it was mainly listing driven, but -- can you give us some color around come confidence on ability to manage costs moving ahead, particularly given the ongoing AI investment pressure and tech price rises and maybe flesh out some areas in the cost base, which you can keep flexing to make way for AI investment. Should I ask has any question now or after?

Yes. Why don't I take that 1 first off, Lucy, I think is coming. Look, you're right, our guidance is unchanged. So we're very confident in the fact that we have been investing in AI and continue to invest in AI within that cost guidance that we've provided. I think 1 of the key points a differentiator is that we have never underinvested in the business. We've always talked about that 7% to 9% CapEx to revenue ratio and our overall investment profile continues to grow as we deliver value to customers and consumers. When we think about the ability to flex costs, we've always been able to flex costs up and down should we need to. And the sort of things that we can do is -- and the things we have been doing is looking at our offshore service delivery centers in both India and Manila. We can tweak up and down should we want to the phasing of our investment. But overall, we're very confident in our ability to continue to target open jaws. And you're right, the question around the modest -- the fact that we're expecting jaws to be open modestly. It's just more on the fact that we've updated our estimation around listings, and that's playing through into the revenue.

No, that's so quite clear. And then just my second question. Obviously, a lot of chat around kind of truck traffic. So maybe if you can talk through how much traffic you're now sourcing or getting from that GPT or how that trajectory has changed over the last few months? And I think offshore, we've seen some more deals recently from your peers partnering to be on the CPT app. Is this -- like how are you thinking about that as a potential next step for REA, -- like are there merits to it now? Should we be doing it now? Just kind to hear your thoughts on that.

Yes. Thanks, Lisa. I'll take that question. So look, in terms of overall traffic, I mean, it's a fraction of a fraction -- and that fraction is -- has declined, not increased more recently. So it's -- you're talking sub-1%. In terms of how we think about it going forward, I mean, it's another growth path for us in terms of traffic acquisition. So longer term, we're encouraged by the partnership that we have with open AI and look forward to, at some stage, having their app store open up to us. So I think that's an ongoing opportunity. But at the moment, it's a very immaterial component of our traffic. I mean some of the other AI innovation that we've deployed that you've seen through the pack is very encouraging. When it comes to things like real Assist and so on that you saw there, just very happy with how all those things are performing. But in terms of that chat, it's very, very small.

Our next question will come from the line of Eric Choi with Baron Joe.

Also -- thanks for the questions. And Jon, I just wanted to echo consorts well. Thank you for your help over the last 7 years making these conference calls and the numbers are a little bit more interesting one. But anyway, Cangene, did you want all the questions at once or 1 by one.

I think 1 by one.

Okay. So maybe just on AI. I guess there's a lot of negativity. I just wanted to go the other way and talk about potential monetization opportunities. And specifically on I know you haven't announced anything will announce anything around pricing yet, but on top of whatever price increases you guys eventually announce and the tailwind from year 2 of your MAX and Pro packages. I'm just wondering if you announce anything significant to drive debt and Max uptake, just because I know you guys are doing a lot of things on immersively steams and AI and developing in your slides today and some of your competitors might be trying to package things into their highest tea debt packages as well. So just wondering on your potential to do the same.

Yes. I guess, holistically, Eric, as you know, the company when it thinks about it prices to value. And -- as you can see in the deck, we've been heavily engaged around building innovative solutions throughout the organization. And limited -- unlimited to or not limited to things like even AI-based training for our customer base and delivering based integrations into places like Ignite and so on, -- and from our perspective, that all forms part of what we call value. So that's probably the answer to that question.

Got you. And sorry, just Jaws is obviously a big talking point today in costs. I guess that first half cost growth was 9% is a little bit misleading because of timing and COGS. So I just wanted to make sure you guys are still gunning for positive Australian jaws into FY '27 and beyond and -- you previously said you can invest in AI would be the current cost envelope. That sounds unchanged. And then I guess that AMAX/COGS steps away next year as well. So yes, can you just confirm that to draw into the medium term?

Yes. Absolutely. We will continue to target open Joos for Australia and for the group. And yes, as we've already said, yes, AI costs and investment is increasing. But on the flip side, there is additional productivity that is starting to come through. We're already evidencing it and will continue to come through into the future. So that gives us the ability to increase the velocity of what we deliver and/or if we wanted to, to drop it out to the bottom line. So that's why we're confident around being able to do more with AI within our cost envelope that we set.

Got you. Just the last one, just finally on capital management. Just can you just quickly talk us through the thinking behind the and buyback? I suspect the share price is still too much and you guys have got $500 million of cash balances. So I suspect we shouldn't read too much into whether this makes M&A any more or less likely?

No. I mean the rationale is clearly that we believe that we've got surplus capital. And given that we have a very strong balance sheet and cash flow, which you can see in the business generates. And it also, I guess, reflects the confidence that we have in the outlook of the company, while also enabling us to sort of continue to invest is as opportunities arise in the future. So we think it's just -- it's a good tool to add in terms of delivering good outcomes for shareholders when it comes to capital management. But from our perspective, we keep our powder dry to when it comes to thinking about opportunities to invest in other things as we go along.

Next question is going to come from the line of David Fabris with Macquarie.

Look, my first question, can I just ask about the AI investment a little differently? I mean you guys have been making small acquisitions. But if acquisitions slow down or take a pause, does that mean you need to spend more to keep up and innovate. So OpEx and CapEx would theoretically increase? Can you clarify that, please?

No, thanks for the question, David. I don't think so. I mean if you look at the M&A that we've done more recently, it's adding incremental capability to the organization. It's adding nice to have a capability to the organization, particularly around data, which you can see through the likes of arialytics and Novalytics. So I think I don't think it changes the profile of CapEx or OpEx spend going forward. As you've seen, the transactions are small, -- and we've been investing in AI for a very long time. And you can see the to revenue ratio has not changed. In actual fact, it's come down in the last 6 months. So I don't think any M&A would change our profile.

Yes. Perfect. And then just my second question. Look, there's been a lot of discussion out there in Australia at the moment without possible changes to capital gains tax on housing. Have you got any views on how this may impact listing volumes, be it positive or negative, if something does pass?

I guess we seem to go through this debate or discussion every years or so. I guess we won't know until we see regulatory change, but I guess from an REA perspective, any change that increases listing volume is good for us. So if capital gains tax changes and has people thinking about changing houses, well, that would be a good outcome for us if that was the case.

Our next question will come from the line of Nick Basile with CLSA.

Cameron and Janelle. Two questions from me. First one, just if I can get some comments or thoughts on how you're seeing the competition from I guess, CoStar own domain at the moment, what changes are they making and how you're responding? And then a second one, just on AI. I guess, interested to know your thoughts on I guess, what metrics matter in this environment? And of the various sort of improvements you've seen in terms of adoption of AI across your developer base or launch of products. How do we think about REA extending the current lead you have versus the competition?

Thank you for the questions. Look, I guess, as a market leader, -- we're very focused on our strategy, our clear path, our direction and where we're heading as a business. And if I just focus on things like traffic, we've continued to build our traffic. We've continued to build engagement with our members. We've seen strong demand in terms of things like leads on the buyer side, yes, I think we're seeing the strongest buy-side leads that we've seen in 4 years, focused on sell-side leads as well, how we bring opportunities to our agents to sell homes.

And so our focus is around addressing the needs of our customers and addressing the needs of consumers and providing them with better capability to reduce friction. -- as time goes on. And so that's our focus as a business and what happens in the competition, space is good for us. It keeps us sharp, but we're very focused on running our race. And just in terms of AI metrics that matter, I mean, you've seen some of the some of the metrics in the slide pack. I mean, as an organization, we've been very focused on becoming an AI prime company, which means as individuals, as teams, AI is at the core of the things we do. And you can see that inside REA with things like our AI tools like clean and just the number of agents that are now in glean and the usage of glean through the technology and the usage of many of the tools available to our tech team in the AI space and how they're being adopted and where they're being adopted. I mean they're all prime data points for us in terms of measuring how we're evolving as a company.

And I guess the other thing that I tend to focus on too is just the speed at which we're now developing new capability. And with AI and the opportunity that we have with that, what I'm seeing is that we're actually able to develop product much, much quicker than what we have historically done. And the quality of that product is very good. And a good example of that is just in terms of search. You saw in the slide pack just examples of conversational search and natural language search that we now have on the platform that we're experimenting with. I mean the time that it would have taken to build that sort of capability 10 years, it would have taken probably 2 years to build, and now it takes days to a month. And so what I'm seeing is acceleration of product deployment into market as being a prime metric that matters. And as we get product to market faster and address the needs of our customers and consumers faster, I think that sets us up for great outcomes into the future.

Our next question will come from the line of Bob Chen with JPMorgan.

Two questions for me. Just the first one, just a follow-up on some of the earlier comments on AI monetization. I guess like what sort of pathways of AI monetization have you guys thought about? Like how will we be able to sort of measure that in sort of the medium term as you develop these new products and launch them into market?

Yes. So I'll go back to my earlier response to Eric, which is when we think about monetization -- we think about it in the context of value that we're adding to our packaging. And so AI forms a component -- 1 of the components of that. And as we continue to build our AI capability through the business, we'll continue to add value for our customers in the AI space that they get to -- they get to leverage from over time.

But I mean some of the other, I guess, indirect monetization that we see through AI is just some of the things that happened in the back end of the business as well. And -- if I think about what we're doing in the space of financial services and the automation that we're seeing there, and there's some illustration on that in the slide pack. I mean what that goes to is our ability to enhance the performance of our brokers, help them sell more finance in a more efficient and productive manner, and that all goes to monetization, too. So when we think about it, we think about it in the front end, and we also think about it in the back end, too. So...

Okay. Great. And then maybe just on the flexibility with the buyback and thoughts around M&A. I guess what is your current level of appetite for M&A? And are you thinking sort of smaller bolt-ons like we've been seeing over the last year? Or could there be a larger strategic M&A on the pipe?

Look, I mean I wouldn't make any comment on size, big or small. I mean, all I'd say is that REA remains a growth-orientated business. It's an acquisitive business, and you've seen us do acquisitions in the last 6 months as well. And what it comes down to is the opportunity and what that opportunity delivers to us, but more importantly, to shareholders in terms of returns to shareholders. And we're very focused on that as an organization. And so it will come down to opportunity. There's no 1 size that sort of fits all.

Our next question will come from the line of Entcho Raykovski with E&P.

Janelle, thank you for all the help. Over the best of luck for the future. My question is, I mean the first 1 is sort of obligatory AI-related question, but you've obviously launched a whole bunch of new products. I'm just curious, firstly, what sort of usage you've seen of real assist and I surge to date since the launch? And just more broadly, in your view, is natural language search the future of search? Or do you expect there to be a high level of stickiness with filter-based surge given that consumer experience. So that's the first question. I've got another one, but I might wait for the answer to this one.

Okay. So look, I mean, the answer to search, and you can see we've got 2 forms of search that we're experimenting with, natural language and conversational search. For me, natural language search is a nice extension to traditional keyword search. But through a sentence as opposed to a key word. But -- the limitation with that is it tends to be searched by search. Whereas conversational search is quite a different experience because conversational search, you're -- it's contextual, it involves an AI agent that's responding and it generates a conversation, which takes you down interesting, more interesting pathways. And I think it's more engaging from a consumer perspective. But we want to trial both because search, in particular, is an evolution, not a revolution. And you've got to allow consumers to evolve to it over time, and you don't want to rush it, if you rush it, you can come unstuck. So we're taking a very responsible approach to this to ensure that we're still maintaining and building on our traffic and engagement with consumers, which is why you're seeing multiple variations that we're testing.

What was the other element of your question, I can't remember that?

So just the comparison to filter basis, which obviously is being used by a lot of consumers. So are you seeing a level of stickiness? Or are you seeing a willingness to adopt confessional search.

Yes. I'll just say too early to call on both. I think when we get to the full year, we will have much more data and insight to share with you.

Okay. Great. And then the second one, I mean, I know you've spoken about this in the past, but I'm just conscious that sort of the environment is evolving. You've got a competitor out there who is, I mean, frankly, making some noise. So I'm curious on pricing for FY Will it be impacted in any way by what your competitors do? Or do you view it as something completely independent of the competitive environment and effectively based on your product and what you see as your value proposition?

You answered the question. As market leaders, we're absolutely focused on running our race. We're focused on delivering more value to our customers. We're focused on delivering more capability to our customers. And when we think about price, we think about value. So we -- and that's what we think about entirely. Okay. So I mean just for the avoidance of doubt, if you don't see hypothetically no price increases from some of the competitors, that doesn't sound like an impact to what you do. We think about our value.

Next question will come from the line of Roger Samuel with Jefferies.

My first question is on your yield growth. in particular, your guidance of 12% to 14% growth by 26%. So you already did 13% in Q1, and you reported today. So you're easily at the top end of that 12% to 14% range. I was just wondering, what are the moving parts? I mean you mentioned about GeoMx before. Is there any reason to believe that geo-mix could be a headwind in the second half? Or perhaps you need to think about your pricing in response to competition. And if I can just extend the question a little bit. Are you still thinking about double-digit your growth going forward regardless of what the competition is doing.

Yes. Thanks. Look, yes, we are targeting double-digit yield growth into FY '27, and that's -- we talk about yield deliberately, not -- which is price plus a number of other things. And look, on the 12% to 14% expectation, the moving part is GeoMx. And that's really all it is. And the challenge we're seeing is that we saw it moves around. Q1 Goias flat. Q2 was up we're seeing in the mix of where the overall listings are, it's very skewed melt and it has been very skewed so far year-to-date. Melbourne and Sydney have been unbelievably strong. in Q2 where Perth and Brisbane have been substantially behind where we thought they were going to be. Now at some point, that's got to start evening up. Now whether Melbourne and Sydney come back a little bit or Perth and Brisbane come up a little bit, that will have an impact on geo mix. And even within that, where the listings are in Melbourne and Sydney in the high-yielding in a city or the lower yielding further out suburbs. So we're just flagging that our expectation at the moment is it's more likely that geo mix will be some form of a likely flat or drag. Very hard to.

Yes, just really the geomet Okay. My second question is maybe a slightly different question on AI. I mean what are you doing to improve the workflow of your customers being the real estate agents consumable that the day activities would be impacted by new AI tools as well. Perhaps they're using some AI tools to improve their workflow. But what can you provide potentially?

Thanks, Roger. I'll do that one. So look, I mean, our agents are at different levels of based sophistication. And so you've got larger agent groups that have good technology, good thinking around AI and then there's a long tail of smaller agents that frankly, probably don't have the time to think about AI. And our position is as market leaders, we need to lead, and we need to help the market understand and evolve with AI. And so we see it's our job to step in and where we can educate the market around what's coming with AI, where the opportunities are for them to generate productivity improvement from -- for their own -- within their own operations.

So there's that element. There's the element, as I just mentioned before, delivering AI capabilities into areas like Ignite. And you'll see in the slide pack, there's some illustration of some of the things that we've already done for agents using AI. And you'll find over time that we'll just keep adding to that capability. But what we want to make sure is that the network understands they understand the opportunity and that we're helping them in that process of understanding it, too.

That's probably the last question. Thanks, everyone, for joining the call. this morning, and look forward to seeing you all over the course of the next couple of days. Thanks very much.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Good morning, everyone. My name is Alice Bennett, Head of Investor Relations, and I'd like to thank you for joining us to discuss REA Group's results for the First Quarter ended 30th September 2025.

Before we commence, I'd like to acknowledge the traditional owners of country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to elders past and present.

Today, you'll hear a welcome from REA Group's new CEO, Cameron McIntyre. Cam will then hand over to Janelle Hopkins, REA's CFO, who will provide a brief business update and talk to the financial highlights for the quarter. Following this, we'll be happy to take any questions. And as a reminder, our quarterly numbers are top line results only, so we'll be restricted in the amount of details we can provide.

With that, I'll pass it to Cam to get us started.

Thanks, Alice, and good morning, everyone. Look, it's great to be here for my first results presentation as REA's CEO. And look, I'd just like to thank the leadership team and everyone across the business for the warm welcome that I've received this week and for their hard work in delivering another positive quarter.

Look, I'd also like to acknowledge Owen's leadership and thank him for his commitment to REA. Owen has built a talented team and his strategic vision and execution has been pivotal in cementing REA as a leading Australian technology company. Given this is my first week, Janelle is going to take you through the group's first quarter business update and financial results shortly. But before handing over, I just want to make a few initial -- share a few initial thoughts.

So look, I'm joining REA at a time of opportunity for the business and for our team. And I'm impressed with the strength of the group, the sound strategic foundations we have and the depth of talent and capability across the organization. And that all sets us up with a really strong platform for the future. I'm also committed to maintaining REA's culture of innovation and its focus on delivering increasing value for our customers and for the millions of consumers who rely on the platform every month.

Today's results are a demonstration of the team's hard work and discipline in what is a strategic or dynamic market environment. REA continued to grow revenues and deliver exceptional value supported by unrivaled audience and premium products. Our balance sheet is extremely strong, and our customer relationships are deep and new technologies give us real fresh opportunities to create even more value. I am genuinely excited about the ongoing rapid advances in technology and what this offers platform marketplaces like ours.

There's clear potential to drive growth, deliver even better consumer experiences and to broaden the products and tools available to our customers. In the months ahead, I'm looking forward to connecting with our customers clearly and working with the team to keep REA on its strong trajectory and catching up with many of you on the call and discuss what's ahead for the business.

So with that, I'm going to hand over to Janelle to take you through the details of the quarter's performance.

Thanks, Cam, and good morning, everyone. REA has delivered a good first quarter result, underpinned by double-digit residential yield growth. Looking at the results from core operations for the quarter, revenue was $429 million, an increase of 4% on the prior year. Operating expenses from core operations increased 3% to $175 million, and EBITDA, excluding associates, was $254 million, an increase of 5%.

Strength in underlying fundamentals and an interest rate cut in August continued to support the health of the market with buyer demand and national house prices reaching record levels. We cycled very strong year-on-year listing comps. And as a result, buyer listings were down in the quarter. However, overall listing levels remained above long-term averages. Our customers have continued to prioritize our market-leading products and services to ensure the best results for their campaigns. Consumer demand strengthened in the quarter with Australians visiting our platforms in record numbers, and we delivered the highest number of monthly buyer inquiries to our customers in 3.5 years.

To deliver on REA's purpose of changing the way the world experiences property, our clear strategy has 3 simple goals: engaging the largest consumer audience with our personalized property experiences, delivering superior value to our customers with leading products and services and leveraging unparalleled data insights as we expand our core business and build next-generation marketplaces. AI supports each of these objectives and is a clear strategic focus for the business. REA's unparalleled audience, coupled with our proprietary data place us in a unique position to harness AI unlike any other Australian property portal. We see significant opportunities.

And while REA has been innovating with AI for some time, our investment is accelerating rapidly. This includes the tools and services we offer to our customers, our consumer experiences and new ways of working within our business to enhance productivity. Focusing on consumers, while this technology is moving very quickly, currently, a very small percentage of our audience is using AI to access our platforms. At present, it sits at approximately 0.04%. We expect this will continue to evolve as the technology advances. While we are watching this closely, from a strategic perspective, we will continue to focus on maintaining and enhancing the channels and experiences that our consumers are using, including through AI.

Our audience is the air we breathe and more people are turning to realestate.com.au than ever before. New audience records were set in the first quarter with the highest number of people ever visiting the platform with a record 12.8 million people in August. We achieved almost 148 million average monthly visits, which is 111 million more than the nearest competitor. Let me say that again, that's 111 million more monthly visits.

Further cementing our strong leadership position, our unique audience leadership gap extended another 14%, and our exclusive monthly audience increased to 6.7 million people. October's audience data is expected to show continued strength in visits. This means August, September and October are on track to record the highest number of monthly realestate.com.au visits ever.

Our personalized experiences ensure property-obsessed Australians deeply engage with our platforms. In Q1, our audience spent an average of 38 minutes a month on realestate.com.au, 25 minutes longer than those visiting our nearest competitor. REA's consumer strategy is centered on converting our large-scale audience to members. Our active membership base continues to increase, up 10% year-on-year, demonstrating the deep engagement of our active members, this valuable cohort spends 2 hours and 15 minutes on our site each month.

The number of listings shared and saved by members increased 11% compared to this time last year, and our personalized property owner experiences helped drive a 35% year-on-year increase in valuable seller leads delivered to customers. Our next-generation listings initiative aims to set a new benchmark in property experiences globally. The initiative has been in place for just over 12 months, and it continues to deliver new and enhanced consumer experiences and drive deeper engagement.

In Q1, this included launching AI property highlights, and property walk-through videos, and we widened the reach of the make and offer feature on listings. This enables serious buyers to submit online offers to an agent directly through a listing at any time. Further unlocking the power of AI for our members, we also launched an easy-to-digest GenAI-powered market summary to support owners in their decision-making. In addition, a new immersive video hub on the app home screen will launch to all consumers in the coming weeks.

Turning to our customer highlights. Record Premiere+ penetration supported strong yield growth in our residential business and our top-tier commercial product, Elite Plus also achieved record penetration. Traction continued to build with our high-performance listing solution, Luxe. Additional value added in Q1 resulted in penetration almost doubling in the quarter. The new value includes an increased frequency of Luxe listings at the top of searches and extending Luxe listings beyond the sales campaign to include sold listings.

Pro is the most comprehensive subscription in the market as well as exclusive prospecting, reporting and workflow management tools, Pro offers agents premium branding opportunities to help drive valuable seller leads. During the quarter, agents on Pro received 31% more seller leads than agents without it. Recognizing the superior value, several large franchise groups have now signed enterprise-wide Pro partnerships, bringing all of their offices onto a Pro subscription. For our Developer business, which we have now called New Homes, Q1 highlighted continued momentum in that market with a healthy increase in both visits to New Homes listings and in leads delivered to customers.

Looking at our financial highlights in more detail for our property and online advertising business. Our residential business delivered a good result with revenue growth of 4%, driven by double-digit yield growth, partly offset by lower listings. Q1 national new buy listings declined by 8%, reflecting particularly challenging comparables. Melbourne and Sydney also declined, down 4% and 6%, respectively, although both cities were still very strong in a historical context, recording the second highest Q1 listings over the last 10 years.

Buy yield was strong, up 13% for the quarter, driven by a 7% average Premiere+ price rise, growth in add-ons, AMAX in particular, increased subscription revenue and increased depth penetration. Geo mix was broadly neutral for Q1. Our rent business saw continued growth with revenue driven by high single-digit yield growth, partly offset by a 2% decline in listings.

Revenue momentum for commercial and new homes continued in the quarter. Commercial revenue was driven by a 7% price rise and increased depth penetration, partly offset by modestly lower listings across both sale and lease. New Homes revenue was also up year-on-year with revenue growth outpacing commercial for the first time in 4 years. This reflected a 7% growth in project profile volumes, increased yield and higher display revenues. Other revenues were up during the quarter, with strong growth in media display from the banking and insurance sectors and campaign agent growth from customer acquisition.

Our Financial Services business had an excellent quarter. Investment in core broking platforms and product innovation supported increased broker productivity and broker leads from realestate.com.au also continued to rise, up 33% year-on-year. Ongoing market strength and growth in our broker network supported a 24% year-on-year increase in submissions, which should continue to flow through to further settlements. Settlements for the quarter were up 16%, benefiting from both higher volumes and loan size. Revenue was partly offset by higher broker payout rates in line with higher volumes. And we set a new record in October with our highest ever month on record for broker submissions.

Looking at our business in India. As we've flagged previously, Housing.com is REA India's strategic priority and a number of recent strategic decisions will enable this business to be our sole focus going forward. The sale of PropTiger completed in late September, and in October, we made the decision to discontinue Housing Edge. This follows recent regulatory changes that impacted the Housing Edge offering and made the business model unviable. While exiting Housing Edge will have a negative impact to EBITDA, noting it contributed approximately $12 million in FY '25, this will enable our full focus on our strategic priorities, Housing.com.

As a result of these changes, REA India's revenue declined 20% year-on-year. Housing core revenue saw modest growth. However, this was more than offset by a reduction in adjacency services on the Housing Edge platform as we put in additional controls on the business and lower PropTiger revenues as the business transitioned to ownership. For Housing.com, driving app traffic and investing in the app experience is the priority, and we've just gone through a major milestone with more than 50% of traffic coming from our app. Apps are the future of the Indian property experience, and our strategy continued to deliver positive results with housing continuing to lead app downloads in India.

Turning to operating costs. Group core costs were up 3%, reflecting 10% growth in Australia and a 22% decline in India. In Australia, cost growth was driven by higher employee costs from salary inflation and product development, increased COGS, reflecting the more than doubling in Audience Maximizer penetration, higher marketing spend, in part due to the timing of our largest customer event, Ready, which was not in the prior year and increased technology costs due to supplier price rises and investment in AI tools.

In India, operating costs declined by 22%, primarily driven by lower revenue-related costs attached to Housing Edge. Removing the impact of Housing Edge and PropTiger, group operating costs increased by 7% in Q1. The group's associates contributed a $7 million loss to core EBITDA in the quarter, in line with PCP. This reflected an improvement in Move's contribution driven by 9% revenue growth, offset by investment in Athena Home Loans, which was not in the prior year. For more information on Move, please see News Corp's Q1 results release.

And lastly, on the 10th of October, we acquired a 61.5% controlling stake in Canadian-based Planitar Inc., the maker of iGuide for $55 million. iGuide produces precise 3D virtual tours and floor plans, which are cost effective and fast to produce. This is expected to complement our video-based visualization strategy.

Moving to current trading conditions. Australia's residential property market remains healthy with strong buyer demand nationally and continued house price growth. Supply has improved in Melbourne and Sydney, which is supporting strong new listings activity, while limited stock in other cities is resulting in some vendors delaying the listing of their properties. We continue to expect national residential buy listing volumes to be broadly flat on last year's healthy market. While listings declined in Q1 due to very strong prior year listings, comparables will become easier as we progress through the remainder of the year, particularly in Q4. October listing volumes were down 3% year-on-year, with Melbourne up 2% and Sydney increasing by 6%.

The group continues to target double-digit residential buy yield growth, including a 7% Premiere+ price rise. As always, geo mix will be a swing factor and the magnitude of yield growth may be impacted by geo mix movements across the remainder of the year. Positive operating jaws are targeted. Group core operating expenses are expected to increase mid-single digits, which reflects high single-digit growth for Australia, the consolidation of iGuide, divestment of PropTiger and exiting Housing Edge.

Excluding those items, on an underlying basis, group cost growth is expected to be high single digit.

EBITDA losses in India will be impacted by exiting Housing Edge and are expected in the range of $40 million to $45 million. And contributions from associates losses are expected to improve modestly compared to the prior year.

On a final note, we are very pleased with the performance we've delivered so far this year, and our business is in great shape. Comps will get easier as we move through the remainder of the financial year and market fundamentals are healthy. Leveraging REA's unparalleled data capabilities, our exciting product pipeline will continue to harness the power of AI to further enhance consumer engagement, provide increased value to our customers and drive growth across our portfolio of assets.

I'll pause there. Operator, we'll now open for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is going to come from the line of Kane Hannan with Goldman.

I appreciate you only started this week, but I'm sure you did the due diligence and have some broad thoughts you can hopefully talk to. So my 2 questions. Just firstly, REA's target for double-digit yield growth going forward against the backdrop of CoStar, ACCC, even AI. I mean are these targets something that you think is still achievable going forward? And just talk, if they are, what is giving you that confidence?

Yes. Thanks, Kane. Thanks for the question, and good to be here. Look, I've only been here a few days, as you say, but REA is an incredible business, and it's got incredible growth drivers and growth levers. And my intention is to continue that growth. So as I said, fourth day in, everything I've observed to date tells me that, that commitment is absolutely deliverable, and I don't see any need to change that at this stage at all.

Awesome. And then secondly, I mean, it's helpful AI audience stats you gave or given in the presentation, partly maybe a function of the data quality that ChatGPT has in this market, obviously seeing what's happening in the U.S. with GPT and Zillow. Just talk about how you would frame the risks, the opportunities of doing something with ChatGPT in this marketplace, whether there's a first-mover advantage as well.

Yes. I'll give you some broader comments first, and then I can talk a little bit about that, and maybe hand over to Janelle, if you want. But look, I'd say 3 days in the ground here, and it's certainly a topic that features in the business. REA has been exploring AI for a long time. And I can see the investment is growing in the business and the business is really focused on it. And it absolutely has the right culture of innovation in the environment that we're going into.

I'd say, more generally speaking, property purchase for all of us is the single largest and most complex transaction that any of us will enter into. And it can be quite a physical process in part at least, too. So REA is strong and trusted brand, its strength of direct traffic, its unique data and insights, its product development capability around things like visualization and search amongst many, many other things. I think they're really important in underpinning the long-term digital marketplace opportunity that we have.

And so I think -- when it comes to things like OpenAI, et cetera, it's a net-net opportunity for REA. But we need to continue to proceed with a great deal of thoughtfulness and consideration. But we do, as a business, need to press forward and leverage the technology that's emerging to benefit our customers and consumers overall.

Yes. Look, just to add to that, Kane, we have been investing in AI for a long time, and we have continued to increase substantially our investment in AI. I would say that all sits within the guidance we provided around that high single-digit cost growth. And you've seen some of the things we've been putting into market around consumer experience. We've got AI highlights on listings. We've got AI overviews in out for property owners. We are getting productivity benefits. So there's a lot of activity happening on AI, and the team is pretty excited about the overall opportunity from it.

Our next question will be from the line of Eric Choi with Barrenjoey.

Good results, especially the yield. Sorry, I'm supposed to ask about the quarter as well, but just like Kane, I guess, given that it's your first presentation, Kane, do you mind if I just do few follow-ups on the strategy? So sorry to kind of reask the question, but just on those long-term targets, you seem you've committed to the double-digit yield, Cam. Can you confirm you're committed to the positive jaws? And just pressing on that a little bit, if we see a scenario where Domain tries to outspend REA on marketing and slows its price increases, is that all factored into the double-digit yield and positive jaws as well?

And sorry, just pressing on AI a little bit. Just I guess, looking at all the comments from the global classifieds, there's probably a range of views on whether that's a risk or opportunity. Obviously, Low is integrating. CoStar wants to capitalize on GEO and I think Auto Trader this morning said it wants to integrate too, but it's where you're sharing too much data. So just a direct question on what extent REA intends to integrate with the AI platforms?

And sorry, just because a little follow-up. Can I throw in the last one? Just the other topic that's kicking around, Cameron, just on M&A. And my question is, even if there was any M&A, would there be quite a high bar just because if I look at what you did in CAR, you really only did EPS accretive deals that kind of lifted the long-term growth. And if I look at your LTIs, the sort of a double-digit, at least historically EPS growth target as well. So just a question on how high that bar is for potential M&A.

Thanks. I'll try and remember all those questions. But look, I'll start with the last one first. I mean when we think about M&A, there's a number of things that get thought about. And clearly, EPS accretion is at the top of the list, but it's not the only thing on the list. And I mean, there are transactions that I've done in the past that are about the strategic capability that we can acquire and bring to the business to execute on certain priorities that we have. So I would say that EPS is just one of the things that we would consider. But certainly, other things like strategic fit, ability to acquire intellectual property, ability to acquire technology that may get us to a place that we want to get to faster would also be at the top of that list as well.

You mentioned just around AI and AI integration and intent around that. I mean, I think I mentioned that to Kane, my view would be that we have incredible data and insights in this business, and we need to protect that data and insights that we have. And any integrations that we would do, we would do with great thought and great consideration. And not just from a consumer and a customer perspective, but also from the point of view of ensuring that REA retains its IP and its data in that integration. And I can't remember your first question, mate, I'm working back to...

Yield and jaws.

Okay. So look, I mean, this business has great operating leverage. It has the ability to manage costs well, and it's done that. I've observed doing that over many, many years. And from a pricing perspective, it prices to value. So when I look at value, I look at what's in the product pipeline that the business has to deliver to customers over the coming months and years, and I'm super impressed with the value that's coming forward. So I put all that together and I don't see any reason why there would be any need to change that perspective.

I phrased that first question badly. There was a small one in there going is REA basically running its own race as well, which means even if goes hard on marketing and kind of lowers its pricing that you're running your own rates and still committing to that double-digit yield and positive jaws.

Yes, we are. We are absolutely running our own race. We're focusing on our strategy and continuing to win being the #1 player. As we've always said, we can manage our costs up and down as we've done. We've got more flexibility in our cost base than ever with the work that we've been doing around our offshore team in India as well as our back office in Manila. One of the benefits -- another benefit of AI will be productivity benefits, which we can then use to reinvest or go faster with our product road map. So we think we've got lots of flexibility.

Our next question will come from the line of Entcho Raykovski with E&P.

So my first question is broadly around new products and then specifically about 3D virtual tools. I mean if you can -- are you able to talk about how important 3D virtual tools are as a product and as part of the offering. You've obviously announced the acquisition of a majority interest in Planitar. Do you think you're at some disadvantage to Domain given CoStar can deploy Matterport technology into Domain listings? So is this potentially an area which will require further product development? So that's my first question. Do you want the second one now? Or should I wait for the answer before giving it to you?

Yes. I'd wait until this one is answered, if you can.

I can indeed.

So look, when we think about our product road map, we've got a pretty exciting product road map, of which visualization is a major component of that, of which video is probably our most important component. And then 3D tours is an interesting thing. At the moment, less than 4% of listings have a 3D tour on it. But as the market evolves, we want to make sure we're there. We're pretty excited about the investment in iGuide. The cameras are cheap and easy to use, and they give a quick 3D tour. So the team are great. We like the cultural fit. It's fair to say we've got -- we're working through our product rollout, and we'll share that at the right time. But it's just part of our overall offering, not the main game in town.

Okay. I mean I'm just conscious that CoStar as they would, they've obviously made a big thing out of rolling Matterport out on their listings in the U.S. The signal they're going to do that in the Australian market as well. Do you see that as a big threat? It doesn't sound like you do.

No, we don't think it's a big threat. No. But one of the other things I would say is we want to partner with the photography networks as we roll out iGuide into Australia.

Okay. Got it. And the second question is around the India business. Are you able to talk to how you think about the longer-term viability of that business following the Housing Edge closure? I mean I'm conscious that's one part of the operation that was profitable. And obviously, that's no longer going to exist. Does it become more difficult to continue to operate that business and especially taking into account the India market is highly competitive?

I'll take that. I mean my views on that, Entcho, is, India is a huge market, and there's a great opportunity there if we can leverage it. The changes that have been made, I think overall, it gives the business the ability to concentrate on its core. I think Perry, who's a new CEO into the business, he's a great guy, comes from great technical heritage, and he's had to make some changes in his exec team, and he's bringing in some great talent, which is incredible.

So I think from my point of view, it's a marathon, not a sprint with some of these businesses. And if I look at India and look at its impact or contribution to the overall EBITDA of the business, it's totally immaterial. So I think it gives us long-term optionality. But yes, I mean, I guess that's my view on where it's at.

Our next question comes from the line of Lucy Huang with UBS.

I've got 2 questions as well. So just firstly, I mean, CoStar has talked about recently how they're looking to launch some of their kind of software and commercial offerings into the Australian market within the next 18 months. Just wondering how you're thinking about, I guess, some of these offerings that they have? And does this place any upward pressure on your need to continue to invest in, I guess, AI and software development spend?

Yes. Look, we're the #1 player in commercial, and we intend to defend that. We've redirected investment to the commercial business over the past year. We've got new products coming out. We've also got a business called Arealytics, which does commercial data. So we think we're well placed to defend against anything that CoStar might be doing. And our view doesn't change around our product investment for the whole company.

Yes. No, that makes sense. And then I noticed that you guys participated in a small funding round in the U.K. in a new AI-driven portal called Jitty. So just wondering if there's any kind of early learnings there that you think could be quite interesting to bring back to the Australian market.

Yes. Look, this is part of when we look globally around the world, the players doing interesting things. And we like the Jitty team. They've built an AI native business. So we've taken a small stake in that business, and we're sort of early days in sharing information backwards and forwards with them. So as we go through that education process, if anything comes up that's relevant for us, we'll put it into our product suite.

Our next question will come from the line of Bob Chen with JPMorgan.

Just a couple of questions for me. Maybe one on AMAX. I think you called out to now one of the stats around a really strong penetration on AMAX. I just wanted to understand like how should we think about the margin profile of AMAX given it also contributes to a bit of a step-up in your COGS line item as well?

Yes. Look, we were really pleased with the penetration of AMAX as part of our recontracting and pricing in June last -- this year. So look, we've more than doubled our penetration in AMAX, which has given us a healthy uptick in yield and supported that 13% yield growth. Yes, that does come with COGS, but it's still a very, very healthy margin product. We don't give -- we don't share the margin, but we are pleased with it and very pleased with how that product has been going.

Okay, sure. And then just maybe thinking about sort of OpEx for the business more broadly. I think you also mentioned some earlier comments around leveraging AI for productivity. Are there any sort of interesting stats that you could sort of provide on what sort of level of productivity gains you've achieved to date or target to achieve with leveraging AI?

Yes. Look, it's hard to give a stat on absolute productivity. We know there's things like our coders are using about 30% of GitHub coding using AI. In reality, though, there's a couple of things to note. Firstly, you've got to pay for AI, so that doesn't come for free. And then secondly, with those productivity benefits, we've got choices. We can either take that to the bottom line or we can reinvest in speed of further product enhancement and rollout. And at the moment, that's our goal is to continue to enhance our speed and delivery. And whilst we're doing that whilst keeping open doors. So that's our focus.

Our next question comes from the line of Sriharsh Singh with Bank of America.

2 questions from my side. One, the 6% yield growth that you delivered on top of the 7% price increase, is it possible to disaggregate that between different drivers, i.e., higher subscription costs and then benefit from add-on products like AMAX and Luxe fixings? My second question is, there's a little bit of confusion when I look at the Sensor Tower data because as per Sensor Tower data, at least for the last 2 or 3 months, Domain has overtaken REA in terms of new app downloads. And my question is, is that consistent with your internal data? And what could explain the difference?

Yes. Look, we don't give the split of the makeup of the extra yield growth. We were very, very happy with delivering 13% yield. But I'll bucket the main drivers of the growth. So first of all, was a 7% price. And the next biggest driver was the benefit we got from yield from our increase in AMAX. And then following that, it's subscription growth, a bit more penetration and a little bit in lux. And there was no geo mix impact on yield for the quarter. So very, very strong yield result, which we're very pleased with.

Sensor Tower, we don't look at Sensor Tower too much around app downloads, unclear what's going on there. I would just point you back to the core around our audience outcomes. We've got record audience numbers. October, we had 163 million visits to REA. And I think the key point, it's the time on site. Think about our time on site, we've got 38 minutes on average per user. And if you look at our members, which is another thing we're heavily focused on is growing our engaged audience, it's over 2 hours and 20 minutes. So it's about time on site and our overall audience growth is very strong. So we're super pleased.

Our next question comes from the line of Fraser McLeish with MST Marquee.

Welcome, Cam. Just a kind of, again, sort of obviously a high level for you at the moment, given you've only been short time. But when you kind of look at the level of investment in REA or the REA has been making over the years, I mean, I guess there's always the opportunity to spend more and drive things harder in this type of business. Do you think kind of it's about right where at the level it is and the sort of the investments has been making? Or do you think it's something you'd potentially want to sort of ramp up a bit? That's my first question.

And then just one for Janelle. Last year, I think the 14% yield growth stayed consistent right through the year on that Q1 level. And should we expect anything different this year? Is there anything that could cause that yield growth, other than geo mix to move up or down through the year?

Thanks, Fraser. Look, in terms of investment from what I've seen, and it comes down to the areas that the company is investing in as well. Janelle mentioned commercial real estate before. Everything I've seen suggests that the business can manage the level of investment that it currently has inside the envelope that it has as well. So I don't see any need for any change in terms of the direction of that investment at this stage would be my response.

And I think on yield growth, I think the 13% is a good guide, just knowing that, as we always say, geo mix, as you flagged, can move up and down. So that would be my caution until -- because Melbourne and Sydney have been very strong on an absolute listings basis.

Sorry, I just -- yes, just a bit detail on that. Would there be an opportunity, for example, to get more subscription penetration as we go through the year? Or is that kind of set to pick it up going into July?

No, you can still have more subscription take-up with Pro. We were very, very pleased with our Pro subscription take-up, and that supported strong subs growth overall, but it's probably in a smaller magnitude than what we've already recognized.

Our next question comes from the line of Siraj Ahmed with Citi.

Janelle, maybe just one question for you. Just on the yield growth, right? It sounds like it -- I mean, it feels like it's better than you expect in August. Can you just confirm that and what's really driving it? And just on Fraser's question, if Luxe penetration is doubling, it seems like it's improving, shouldn't we be seeing a bit of improvement in yield going forward?

Yes. Thanks, Siraj. I think yield growth, we were just cautious because of geo mix. We just weren't sure how strong Melbourne and Sydney were going to be compared to the rest of the country, and that's ended up being quite strong, and that supported overall geo being flat. In a normal time, we would normally say geo mix would be at sort of 0.5% to a 1% headwind. So it has been neutral for Q1, which is good. And then Luxe, we were really pleased with Luxe take-up and it's exactly on track with where we thought it was going to be. It is coming off a very, very low base. So from a magnitude of yield growth, it's unlikely to be a substantial driver between Q1 and the rest of the year.

Thank you. And I would now like to hand the conference back over to Cam McIntyre for closing remarks.

Thank you very much. Thank you again for joining this morning. As I said before, super pleased to be here as part of the REA team, and they're a fantastic team, and I'm really excited about the year we have ahead and look forward to seeing you all early next year. So I must see you in between then and now, but thanks very much for joining.

Thank you.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Hamish McLennan, Chairman of REA Group Limited. On behalf of the REA Group Board, I'm delighted to welcome you to our 2025 Annual General Meeting. Before we commence, I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of country throughout Australia and recognize the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to elders past and present. There is a quorum present, and I declare the meeting open, and the Notice of Meeting is taken as read.

I would now like to cover the meeting procedures that we will be using today. Voting will be conducted by poll. Shareholders have the option of casting their vote before the meeting or appointing a proxy to do so on their behalf. If you haven't done so, so you can vote online as shown on the slide now being displayed and as explained in further detail in the online meeting guide that accompanied the notice of meeting. You can do so at any time during the meeting as the poll is now open for voting. Voting will close shortly after the end of the meeting.

To help with the smooth running of the meeting, we invite shareholders and proxy holders to submit your online questions and comments now. Further details on how to ask questions or make a comment online are contained in the online meeting guide. If you encounter any technical issues with the platform at any time during the meeting, please contact the share registry's online AGM support team on 1800 990 363. In the unlikely event that technical issues prevent the meeting from proceeding as planned, REA will make announcements via the ASX and our website. As set out in the Notice of Meeting, only shareholders and proxy holders are entitled to vote on the resolutions, ask questions or make comments.

I will allow a reasonable opportunity to address questions and comments as each item of business is considered. Please ensure your questions or comment is relevant to an item of business at this meeting or the management of the company. Shareholders will also be able to ask questions of the company's auditor. Questions relating to customer, consumer or personal shareholder matters won't be put at the meeting. Please observe a 2-question limit per item of business and keep questions short and focused to ensure that as many shareholders as possible have an opportunity to ask questions. Where questions are similar, we will aim to acknowledge those who have asked the question, but we will provide a single response in order to streamline today's proceedings. Questions or comments that do not relate to REA will not be acknowledged or addressed during the AGM.

Joining me today are my fellow directors, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, Tracey Fellows, Richard Freudenstein; Michael Miller, Jennifer Lambert, Nick Dowling; and our CEO, Owen Wilson. Also in attendance is our CFO, Janelle Hopkins and Company Secretary, Tamara Kayser as well as Alison Parker, representing the company's auditors, EY. Turning to our agenda for today's meeting. Firstly, I will provide a brief overview of REA's FY '25 highlights. Secondly, Owen will then talk to our FY '25 operational performance, and we'll share a brief update on current market conditions. And finally, in accordance with the Notice of Meeting, we will then move into the formalities. Under the leadership of Owen and his executive team, REA Group delivered an excellent performance with strength in our core business and ongoing investment in future growth opportunities.

The group's financial highlights from core operations for the full year include a 15% revenue growth over -- to over $1.6 billion, an 18% increase in EBITDA, excluding associates to $969 million and $564 million net profit, an increase of 23%. The Board declared total dividends of $2.48 per share for FY '25. The 31% year-on-year increase in this dividend per share reflects the group's consistent strong performance and the confidence our Board has in the business's growth trajectory.

The chart on this slide demonstrates the significant growth in the group's revenue and earnings since first listing on the ASX. With innovation at our core, REA has consistently delivered shareholder value as demonstrated by our strong 10-year CAGR of 12% revenue and 13% EBITDA. Our flagship site, realestate.com.au was launched in the suburban Melbourne Garage 10 -- 30 years ago. Over the last 3 decades, our business has grown from one brand to a portfolio of more than 18 brands and businesses, driven by a strong growth mindset, REA has cemented itself as the digital leader in property.

In addition to our excellent financial performance in FY '25, we continue to invest in future growth with key acquisitions that drive continuous innovation of our products and our experiences. Building on the strong foundation of our financial services business and the success of our partnership with Athena Home Loans, in October 2024, we acquired a 19.99% interest in the digital nonbank lender -- this digital nonbank lender. This investment supports our financial services strategy of providing Australian homebuyers with more choice and a seamless experience when finding and financing a property.

During the year, the group also acquired a minority stake in 3D visualization platform, IMMERSIV, and entered into an agreement for a minority investment in rural property data platform, Agtuary. IMMERSIV's products are specifically designed to support buying and selling off the planned properties. Agtuary supports property and finance professionals to make informed data-driven decisions in rural property management and investment. The transaction to divest the group's 17.2% stake in PropertyGuru was completed in December, ending our operations in Southeast Asia.

We recently acquired a stake in AI-powered business Jitty based in the U.K. And last week, we announced a majority investment in Planitar Inc., the maker of iGUIDE, it's based in Canada. It's no coincidence that the accelerated growth of the business over the last 10 years aligns to the tenure of our outgoing CEO, Owen Wilson. Owen has been instrumental in REA cementing itself as one of Australia's best homegrown technology success stories. After 6 years leading the group, he leaves the business incredibly well positioned for future growth. The list of achievements under his leadership is immense. And on behalf of the Board, I would like to sincerely thank Owen for his outstanding contribution. You've been a fantastic leader over a long period of time, and I really appreciate everything that you've done for us.

And I hope our shareholders recognize the work that you've done for them, too. We look forward to welcoming our incoming CEO, Cameron McIntyre in early November. Cameron joins us from CAR Group, and he brings a deep understanding of and success in a business that has much in common with REA. He is the ideal person to build on REA's strong momentum and lead to our next phase of growth. In closing, I would like to thank REA's talented employees, executive leadership team and my fellow Board members for their dedication to REA's continued success. I would also like to extend my thanks to our valued shareholders for their support. REA has a strong balance sheet, a committed team and the group is well positioned to continue to grow in FY '26. I will now hand over to Owen to come up and talk about our operational performance.

Thank you, Hamish, and good morning, everyone. REA Group delivered an excellent FY '25 result with double-digit yield growth, stronger consumer engagement and increasing value delivered to our customers. Throughout the year, REA continued to invest in talent and technology and delivered exceptional customer and consumer products and experiences.

To deliver on our purpose of changing the way the world experiences property, our strategy centers on engaging the largest consumer audience, delivering superior value to our customers and leveraging unparalleled data and insights as we expand our core business and build next-generation marketplaces. On the right of this slide, you can see our strategic priorities, and I'll share some highlights from each of these priorities throughout the remainder of the presentation. This slide is a simplified view of REA's approach to AI. AI is an enabler that is enhancing the execution of our strategy and accelerating delivery. As a digital leader, REA has been investing in AI and machine learning models for over a decade, and our investment has significantly increased in recent years.

There are clear opportunities to innovate the way we extract and use data, enhance our products and experiences and to improve operational efficiencies. There are many current use cases where AI is leveraged under these broad themes, including PropTrack's leading automated valuation model, realestate.com.au's highly personalized homepage experience and AI-led tools that support developers with coding efficiencies. Turning to our key operational highlights for the year. Australians are property obsessed and on realestate.com.au, they can find more properties for sale than anywhere else. Demonstrating the brand contribution and value of our flagship site, Australia's #1 address in property was recognized as the sixth most valuable brand in the 2025 Kantar BrandZ ranking.

When it comes to property, Australians continually turn to REA's platforms throughout their journey. As you can see on this slide, our brands make up 3 of the top 4 property websites in the country with realestate.com.au firmly in front. Looking at our audience highlights in more detail. Realestate.com.au delivered record FY '25 audiences, and we increased our lead over the nearest competitor with 12.1 million people visiting the platform on average each month. More than 6.4 million of these people use our site exclusively, which means these potential property seekers can only be reached on realestate.com.au.

The scale and deep engagement of our audience underpins the value we deliver to our customers. The chart on the right highlights realestate.com.au's unique audience growth over time with the number of visitors to the platform more than doubling in the last 8 years. In FY '25, more Australians turn to REA for all their property needs than ever before, including our commercial and property research platforms.

Realcommercial.com.au is Australia's #1 commercial property website. Its reach increased 26% compared to the prior year with an average monthly unique audience of 1.9 million people, which is 3x larger than the nearest competitor. Property.com.au is Australia's most comprehensive property research destination. The enhanced consumer experience in FY '25 supported the platform's audience growth with an average of 2.1 million people visiting the site each month. Turning to highlights for our consumers. Our consumer strategy is centered on converting our unparalleled audience into members, and we delivered a 12% year-on-year increase in our active membership base.

Our property owner experiences supports the delivery of quality seller leads to our customers. We reached a new milestone with 4.5 million properties now tracked by their owner on realestate.com.au, and the volume of seller leads delivered to our customers increased a pleasing 55% year-on-year. Our customers value our leading audience over any other benefit. And to ensure we continue to foster the strength of our audience in FY '25, we introduced our next-generation listings initiative. NextGen is designed to reshape the property experience, fostering deep engagement with AI-led personalization. The multiyear initiative has already delivered several new features, experiences and benefits with many more to come.

Supporting the delivery of highly personalized, immersive and engaging property experiences, we recently acquired iGUIDE. iGUIDE is a proprietary camera and software platform that uses advanced AI capabilities to identify property features and produce IMMERSIV 3D virtual tours, precise floor plans and reliable property measurement data. This type of spatial mapping technology helps instill confidence and supports property seekers to make more informed decisions while also enabling agents and vendors to differentiate their property. Our priority is to continually enhance the value delivered to customers, and we are pleased our efforts were recognized with record customer sentiment achievement in FY '25.

Our customers continue to prioritize our products and services with record penetration of our top-tier residential product, Premiere+, and our top-tier commercial product, Elite Plus. Powered by NextGen, Premiere+ delivers 20% more inquiries than a Premiere Listing and sells properties 12 days faster on average. Uptake of our high-performance listing solution, Luxe, continues to build traction, highlighting the value offered to our customers and their vendors, a Luxe add-on generates twice the number of views compared to a Premiere+ listing. Our self-service platform, Ignite, supports customers with workflow management efficiencies and active users increased 25% year-on-year. Turning to our Financial Services business. Improved market conditions throughout the year, a focus on supporting broker productivity and strong brand activation supported the business's strong performance during the year.

This included a 15% increase in submission volumes, which flowed through to a pleasing 10% increase in settlements. The finance experience on realestate.com.au was enhanced in FY '25 with more prominent placement and new features. This uplift supported a 46% increase in realestate.com.au generated broker leads. Our higher-margin white label products continue to resonate with buyers and perform well. Mortgage Choice Freedom, powered by Athena, surpassed $2.7 billion in settlements during the year. Mortgage Choice was also recognized with various awards throughout the year.

REA's global growth strategy is focused on the exciting opportunity in India. We hold a 78% interest in REA India, which delivered strong revenue growth despite competition intensifying. We know apps are the future of the Indian property experience, and our investment has been focused on driving our app audience and enhancing the app experience. This delivered pleasing results with Housing.com achieving 19% year-on-year growth in app sessions. We remain focused on listing quality and information accuracy. Verified listings are a key component of maintaining and nurturing consumer trust and driving audience. New verified listings on Housing.com increased 58% year-on-year. Housing.com continues to be REA India's priority, and we've sharpened this focus through a number of strategic decisions.

In July 2025, REA India entered into a binding agreement to divest its PropTiger business and the deal completed on 30 September. In addition, following recent regulatory changes impacting the Housing Edge offering, we've made the decision to discontinue this business this month. This will impact India results in FY '25 as the Housing Edge business contributed EBITDA of approximately $12 million in FY '25.

These decisions enable us to have a singular focus on our core business in India. And under the leadership of our newly appointed CEO, Praveen Sharma, we are excited for the next wave of growth. REA Group is committed to sustainable business practices, and we're pleased to make progress towards our sustainability goals in FY '25. Our efforts were recognized with an increased MSCI ESG rating of AAA.

In a bid to tackle the growing homelessness issue faced by many Australians, last month, we launched A Home for All Foundation in partnership with the property industry. The foundation will drive awareness, raise funds and build long-term change for people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity. REA's people are the beating heart of our business, and we are committed to fostering a diverse and high-performance culture. We were delighted to be recently recognized as Australia's third best workplace by Great Place to Work, and we also achieved a record high employment engagement score of 89%. Our Indian business was also a Great Place to Work certified and achieved a strong 93% engagement score.

Before we move to the formalities of the meeting, I'd like to touch briefly on current market conditions. As we said at our FY '25 full year results presentation, we are cycling over very strong listing comparables in the first quarter of FY '26. As anticipated, buy listings are down year-on-year for Q1. However, they remain above long-term averages. While listings are hard to predict, as we said in August, the softer comparables in the second half should see national FY '26 listing volumes fall broadly in line with the prior year. Given the strength of the market last year, this would represent a continued healthy property market. Strong underlying fundamentals and the potential for further interest rate cuts should continue to support buyer demand and national house price growth. Engagement on realestate.com.au is a good measure of demand. And in August, we saw a new record of 151 million visits to the site.

National home prices have also reached record highs, up 6.2% over the last year, with September marking the ninth consecutive month of growth. These conditions offer a great time to sell, and vendors should continue to feel confident in bringing their properties to market. REA Group will announce its first quarter financial results on the 7th of November. In closing, I'd like to sincerely thank REA's exceptional executive leadership team for their contribution throughout the year. We were delighted to welcome Jane Cohen to our executive team as our new Chief Strategy Officer in July.

We also recently farewelled our former Chief Product and Audience Officer, Melina Cruickshank, and I'd like to thank Melina for her contribution over her 6 years with the business. I'd also like to express my thanks to Hamish, our Chair, and our Board of Directors for your ongoing counsel and support over the past 11 years. It's been a great ride. If I had a dollar for every time Hamish and I have spoken on the phone over the last 7 years, it would be a very big pile of gold coins.

Finally, I'd like to thank our employees for their outstanding efforts. Our people bring their best every day, and their pride in our business is consistently evident in the way they live our values and their commitment to delivering for our customers, consumers and shareholders. REA's future is bright. And I know when I sign off at the end of this month, I'm leaving the business well positioned for continued growth. It's been an absolute privilege to lead this incredibly talented team and this amazing business. I'll be applauding from the sidelines as they continue to innovate, to grow and to deliver increasing value to our customers and our consumers. I'll now hand back to Hamish to continue with the formalities. Thank you.

Thank you again, Owen, and the entire REA team for a fantastic result. I will now proceed with the formal business of the meeting. The Notice of Meeting sets out the matters for consideration by shareholders today and the items of business and are being shown on the screen. During the meeting, when we get to each item, we will display the proxy votes and the direct votes received in advance of the meeting in respect of that item. As indicated in the Notice of Meeting, where I, as Chairman of the meeting, have been nominated as shareholders' proxy, I intend to vote undirected proxies in favor of the resolution to the extent permitted and will vote directed proxies in accordance with the instructions given by the shareholder. There are also voting restrictions for some resolutions as outlined in the Notice of Meeting, which apply to those that have an interest in the resolutions and certain of their related parties or associates.

I remind you that the online polls are now open for voting. Online voting will close 5 minutes after the conclusion of the AGM. Daniel Reid of MUFG Corporate Markets will act as returning officer.

Item #1. I will now table the 2025 annual financial report and the reports of the directors and auditors for the year ending 30 June 2025 for the meeting to consider. There is no formal resolution to put to shareholders on this item, but there is and will be an opportunity to ask questions on the matters contained within the reports as well as the business and the operations of REA. I will now turn to any online questions received during the course of today's meeting, Erin?

[Voting]

We have not received any questions relating to this item of business.

Thank you. As there are no further -- as there are no questions, I will now move to item #2. The first resolution today concerns the adoption of the remuneration report, which is set out in the company's 2025 annual report. I remind you that the vote on this item is advisory only, and we will consider and take into account the vote and feedback from shareholders on the remuneration report. The Board recommends that shareholders vote in favor of the resolution as set out on the screen. I note that the proxy and direct votes received prior to the meeting in respect of this item of business is set out on the screen. I will now turn to any online questions received during the course of today's meeting. Erin?

Chairman, we have not received any questions relating to this item of business.

As there are no questions, we will proceed to the vote on resolution 2. Would you please now vote using the voting card on the online portal. I'll now move to Item 3A. Item 3A relates to the reelection of Kelly Bayer Rosmarin. Ms. Rosmarin was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of the company in January 2022. She retires by rotation and being eligible is today standing for reelection as a director. Ms. Bayer Rosmarin's details are set out in the Notice of Meeting. The Board other than Ms. Bayer Rosmarin, unanimously support her reelection and recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution as set out on the screen. I will now hear from Ms. Rosmarin through a short address. Kelly?

Thank you, Hamish, and good morning, everyone. It has been an honor to serve you as an independent Non-Executive Director since January 2022. Over the past 4 years, I've been privileged to work with our exceptional management team and fellow directors in positioning REA Group as Australia's leading property platform whilst ensuring robust governance and risk management practices that protect shareholder value. I have more than 2 decades of experience building businesses and driving technology innovation across financial services, telecommunications and the tech sector as well as extensive Board and advisory experience across a wide range of sectors, including government, not-for-profit and fintech.

This diverse experience has given me unique insights into digital transformation, regulatory compliance and crisis management all important capabilities as REA Group continues to navigate the evolving digital property landscape. I am passionate about the group, proud of its history and excited about the tremendous opportunities in its future. With your support, I am committed to leveraging all of my experience and learnings to continue contributing to REA Group's ongoing success. Thank you for your consideration. As a fellow director, I respectfully seek your support for my reelection.

Thank you, Kelly. I move that Kelly Bayer Rosmarin be reelected as a Director of the company. I note that the proxy and direct votes received prior to the meeting in respect to this item of business are set out on the screen. I will now turn to any online questions received during the course of today's meeting. Erin?

Thank you, Chairman. We've received a question from Stephen Mayne. Why is Kelly running again for our Board when she has just been appointed CEO of 185-year-old Mutual Australian Unity and has joined the Board of the $10 billion fintech Airwallex. Surely, this is all too much. Also, did she consider the optics of cooperating with a positive profile interview in the Australian newspaper yesterday when she is meant to be an independent REA director, not someone relying on our controlling shareholders, Media Empire for reputation management after the various Optus controversies.

We evaluate all of our directors based on their contribution to the business and the Board and their availability. And Kelly has made an exceptional contribution to the company, and we really value everything that she delivers for us. In all of her career and her recent experiences, we draw upon those learnings and not only support her for this reelection, but think that her contribution has been absolutely terrific.

Chairman, there are no further questions relating to this item of business.

[Voting]

Thank you. As there are no further questions, we will proceed to the vote on Resolution 3A. Would you please now vote using the vote card on the online portal. I will now move to Item 3B. Item 3B relates to the reelection of Michael Miller. Mr. Miller was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of the company in November 2015. He retires by rotation and being eligible is today standing for reelection as a director. Mr. Miller's details are set out in the Notice of Meeting. The Board, other than Mr. Miller, unanimously support his reelection and recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution as set out on the screen. We will now hear from Mr. Miller through a short address. Michael?

Thanks, Chair. I'm a homeowner. I'm a regular consumer and user of property data and listings information, and I regularly engage with business leaders across the real estate and lending industries. I joined the Board of REA Group a decade ago. Over the last 30 years, I've had experience in broadcasting, radio, publishing media as well as being professionally involved in digital businesses such as e-commerce, leads, data, marketplaces and branded content on almost a daily basis. I'm particularly proud of how REA Group and News Australia collaborate together to ensure that all REA shareholders continue to receive value from the work they have undertaken together. I do believe it is a noticeable point of difference in the market, and I'm committed to ensuring that, that positive momentum continues both fiscally and through important social initiatives such as the recently launched REA program, A Home for All. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Michael. I move that Michael Miller be reelected as a Director of the company. I note that the proxy and the direct votes received prior to the meeting in respect to this item of business are set out on the screen. I will now turn to any online questions received during the course of today's meeting. Erin?

Chairman, we have not received any questions relating to this item of business.

[Voting]

Thank you. We will now proceed to the vote on Resolution 3B. Would you please now vote using the voting card on the online portal. I will now move to Item 3C. Item 3C relates to the reelection of Tracey Fellows. Ms. Fellows was appointed as a Director of the company in August 2014. She retires by rotation and being eligible is today standing for reelection as a director. Ms. Fellows details are set out in the Notice of Meeting. The Board, other than Ms. Fellows unanimously support her reelection and recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution as set out on the screen. We will now hear from Tracey through a short address.

Thank you, Hamish. It's been a great pleasure and honor to have been part of the REA Board, both as a CEO and more recently as a Non-Executive Director. In that time, I've been part of REA's growth and evolution through changing market conditions and of course, more recently, a change in leadership. My career has been entirely in the tech industry, and I've seen the opportunities and disruptions, both locally and globally in those roles. Today, I am engaged with several international real estate classified companies and experienced firsthand a range of business models, market structures, and I'm able to share this experience constructively to the benefit of REA. The tech landscape is changing in some ways led by AI and creating new opportunities for REA. And my experience, along with those of my colleagues on the Board, will help navigate these opportunities.

As we look ahead, we welcome Cameron McIntyre to lead REA for our next chapter, and I continue to be extremely passionate about REA and the culture that's been created and look forward to the opportunity to continue to serve our shareholders and growing the business. Thank you.

I move that Tracey Fellows be reelected as a Director of the company. I note that the proxy and the direct votes received prior to the meeting in respect to this item of business are set out on the screen. I will now turn to any online questions received during the course of today's meeting, Erin?

Chairman, we have not received any questions relating to this item of business.

[Voting]

Thank you. As there are no further questions, we'll proceed to the vote on Resolution 3C. Would you please now vote using the voting card on the online portal. I will now move to Item 3D. Item 3D relates to the reelection of Richard Freudenstein. Mr. Freudenstein was appointed as a Non-Executive Director of the company in November 2006. He retires by rotation and being eligible is today standing for reelection as a director. Mr. Freudenstein's details are set out in the Notice of Meeting. The Board, other than Mr. Freudenstein, unanimously support his reelection and recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution as set out on the screen. We will now hear from Richard through a short address.

Thank you, Hamish. Good morning, everyone. I've had the privilege to serve on the REA Board for many years, including 5 years as Chairman. During my time on the Board, I've seen a lot of changes and watched REA grow from a small entrepreneurial business to an ASX top 25 company. My years on the Board give me a great understanding of the business, and I'm even more committed to working with the executive team to continue to expand the business and grow value for shareholders. I believe I have a range of skills to enable me to add value on the Board of REA.

In particular, I've worked as a CEO of both a large customer-facing subscription business and a fast-growing digital business. I'm currently a Board member of Coles Group Limited and Cochlear Limited, both top 40 ASX-listed businesses, and I'm Chair of Appen Limited. These roles provide me with insights into a wide range of different business models as well as a good understanding of corporate governance. And I have international experience, having worked in the U.K. for many years and served on Boards in Asia. At REA, I currently serve on the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee. I will be honored to be reelected to continue to serve the interest of REA shareholders.

Thank you, Richard. I move that Richard Freudenstein be reelected as Director of the company. I note that the proxy and the direct votes received prior to the meeting in respect of this item of business is set out on the screen. I will now turn to any online questions received during the course of today's meeting. Erin?

Chairman, we have not received any questions relating to this item of business.

[Voting]

Thank you. We will proceed to the vote on Resolution 3D. Would you please vote using the voting card on the online portal. I will now move to item 4. We now move to the resolution concerning the grant of performance rights to the incoming CEO, Cameron McIntyre, under the 2028 REA long-term incentive plan. Details of the proposed grant are set out in the Notice of Meeting. If the performance rights vest and Mr. McIntyre becomes entitled to be allocated shares under the LTIP, all such shares will be purchased on market by the company and transferred to Mr. McIntyre. Accordingly, the grant of performance rights and allocation of shares on vesting of those performance rights to Mr. McIntyre do not require shareholder approval under ASX Listing Rule 10.14. The Board is nevertheless seeking -- voluntarily seeking shareholder approval in recognition of the importance of shareholder engagement on key remuneration issues.

The number of performance rights that will vest as at the 30th of June 2028 will be determined by reference to revenue, earnings per share and relative total shareholder return performance conditions. In respect of each performance condition, none of the performance rights attached to that condition will vest unless the threshold performance level is achieved. The nonexecutive directors considers the incoming CEO's remuneration package to be appropriate in all of the circumstances and recommend that shareholders vote in favor of this resolution is set out on the screen. I note that the proxy and the direct votes received prior to the meeting in respect of this item are set out on the screen. I will now turn to any online questions received from you during the course of today's meeting. Erin?

Thank you, Chairman. We've received one question in relation to this item of business from Stephen Mayne. Which of the 5 main proxy advisers, ACSI, Ownership Matters, Glass Lewis, ISS and ASA covered us this year? And did any recommend a vote against any of today's resolutions, including this LTI grant to the new CEO? Did a proxy adviser trigger the 7% protest vote against Kelly's reelection?

Our discussions and our relationship and agreement with the proxy advisers is that all dialogue will remain confidential, and that's what it will be. Are there any other questions?

Chair, there are no further questions on this item of business.

[Voting]

We'll proceed to the vote on Resolution 4. Would you please now vote using the voting card on the online portal. That concludes the discussion of the items of business. I will now address one written question REA received prior to the AGM. I'll ask Erin to call out the question now, please.

Thank you, Chairman. We have received a question from Mr. Peter Calero as follows. What effect does the recent launch of Quiet List and the rise in off-market sales have on REA's business in Sydney and Melbourne?

Thanks for the question. The level of off-market sales is very difficult to measure accurately. We've tried to do that over a number of years. Based on our estimates, the percentage of off-market transactions has been very stable over a number of time. And it's always been a feature of the Australian property market. If Quiet list is influencing this sector, we're not seeing any impact on our business at this stage.

Okay. Erin, are there any further questions?

We have received a question from Stephen Mayne. Under Australian law, it is illegal to access a public company share register in order to report on someone's wealth. Yet when it comes to the $10 trillion of wealth tied up in Australian residential property, REA has access to extraordinary data and monetizes this to great effect. Could CEO, Owen Wilson, explain who we pay for access to that data and whether he thinks there is a risk we could lose access to some of that data if politicians adopt a privacy position similar to what applies to public company share registers.

Thanks, Stephen. Look, you are right. We do have access to an extraordinary amount of data on properties. And you can see that on our research site, property.com.au. It's the most comprehensive view of properties in the Australian market. And we do pay for some of that data. We pay various providers for it as others do. In terms of private information, we take our privacy obligations very seriously. You'll notice on property.com.au, there is no private information disclosed, and we never would. But I would note that, as I said in my opening remarks, 4.5 million Australians have claimed their property on realestate.com.au. They want to let us know they own the property. They want that information back to them about their valuation, transactions in their suburbs, et cetera. So we do have that extraordinary level of data, but we take our privacy obligations very seriously.

Thank you, Owen. Erin, any further questions?

We have received 3 questions from Peter Calero, Stuart Reid and Stephen Mayne in relation to the virtual AGM format to the effect of why does the company not hold a hybrid AGM meeting open for investors to attend and what is the additional cost, if any, of holding a hybrid meeting as opposed to an online meeting?

With what we've observed over years gone by, the physical turnout of shareholders has been very, very small, and we feel that this offers an efficient way to conduct the meeting consistent with many other large ASX top 50 companies. So we feel that it's appropriate. It is cheaper, marginally cheaper, but we think that it's sufficient. And again, we always have an eye on how we look after our shareholders and do the right thing by them. Erin, are there any further questions?

I have a comment from Peter Calero. As a shareholder of REA for several years, I would like to wish Owen all the best for his future endeavors. And as a long-term shareholder of CAR Group, having met Cameron at several AGMs, I can confirm he is a good choice to take over from Owen as CEO.

Thank you, Peter. We concur with you. If you have not -- are there any other questions, I should say?

Chairman, there are no further questions.

[Voting]

If you have not already cast your vote, can you please do so now? Please ensure you have clicked the submit button on each resolution. The results of this meeting will be announced to the ASX and will be available on our website as soon as possible after the conclusion of today's meeting. A copy of the webcast will also be made available on REA's website. Thank you to our shareholders for attending and participating in today's meeting. I declare the Annual General Meeting closed. Thank you, everyone.