Listed rental property portal Rent.com.au's revenue rose 118 per cent rise in the year to June 30 showing demand for rental properties has continued to escalate in the increasingly expensive Australian residential markets.
Revenue was $748,000, up from $343,000 in the prior comparable 12-month period, although it has a $12.8 million operating loss due to a non-cash share based payments of $5.4 million. Most of that was paid to departing chief executive Mark Woschnak. The company, which listed on the Australian Securities Exchange last year through a reverse takeover, has achieved 651,000 average monthly unique visitors this year, up 157 per cent to last year and exceeding the target of 500,000 set initially.
In the past year, 2700 agents and 13,000 private landlords have signed up to advertise on rent.com.au.
Point of difference
Its point of difference is both agent and non-agent landlords can list properties for rent on its website, with the biggest opportunity in the non-agent market, Mr Woschnak said at the time of listing.
In the agent market, the company also picked up 90 per cent of the market share of all agent residential rental listings during the year.
Having reached critical mass, the company will now begin to commercialise on the website and offer more products to address renter concerns such as RentCheck which helps landlords check a renter's standing.
Rent.com.au planned to change the perception around renting, CEO Greg Bader said.
"We accept that housing affordability is a real issue in Australia, but we are also seeing a growing number of people choosing to rent for practical and logical reasons," he said.
