STRONG GROWTH IN CUSTOMER BASE AHEAD OF MASS MARKETING CAMPAIGN...

STRONG GROWTH IN CUSTOMER BASE AHEAD OF MASS MARKETING CAMPAIGN Rent.com.au Limited (ASX: RNT) (“RENT” or “the Company”),

Australia’s Number 1 website dedicated to rental property, achieved more than 660,000 unique visitors to the website during April 2016 while also continuing to increase agent registrations and landlord listings in line with its content targets.
RENT Managing Director, Mark Woschnak, said the Company continued its strong growth in April 2016 with record operating results in each of its key targets of unique visitors, agent registrations and landlord listings. In conjunction with the completed capital raising, these results provide a solid platform from which to launch an effective, national mass market branding campaign.  

Key Statistics:  
 666,203 unique visitors (“UV’s”) to the site in April 2016;
 Second consecutive month of strong growth in real estate agent registrations (up to more than 7,800);
 Record active non‐agent/landlord listings (up to 1,730); and
 Strong shareholder support of $5.5m rights issue to fund mass market brand profile

The Company has continued to deliver on its core objectives for 2016, as outlined at the time of listing on the ASX in 2015, including:
 Focus on growth in listings content from agents and landlords;
 Completing the roll out of its national sales team;
 Continued innovation in user experience and product development; and
 Preparing the next phase of the national branding campaign.

“We have backed up the excellent results we had in March 2016 with yet another strong month of renter, agent and landlord customer growth, putting us in an excellent position to commence the mass market branding campaign and achieve our core objectives for this year,” Mr Woschnak said.

“Following on from the 517 new agents who registered with www.rent.com.au during March, we have had another 537 register in April so that we now have more than 7,800 agents registered in total.
This strong surge in agent numbers reflects the level of appetite by real estate agents for our offering”.   “We expect this rate of free registration growth to slow as we approach saturation of the market, however our focus on sales activity increases.
Our revenues are now increasing as our nationalsales team gain good traction in transitioning agents onto premium paid plans.”

Mr Woschnak said the number of active non‐agents (private landlords) had also grown during the month to 1,730 which, along with the growth in registered agents, will underpin significant expected further growth in listings content over the coming months.

Successful Capital Raising  During April RENT completed a $5.5 million non‐renounceable rights issue primarily for the purpose of funding a mass market branding campaign to drive the next phase of growth.
“We received a strong level of support from existing shareholders who subscribed for approximately 40% of the shares under the offer, which was very pleasing given the overall performance of the market over recent months,”
Mr Woschnak said. “We have also been strategic in attracting some important new shareholders to the RENT share register via the underwriting of the shortfall.

The combination of a strong operational performance and a successful capital raising in April has the Company very well positioned for the future,” Mr Woschnak concluded.