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We finished last financial year with a record high market share of 14.58 per cent across Australia and New Zealand, which was an eight per cent increase on where we were in June 2023. We know we can’t control how many properties will be sold in this new financial year and what will happen to property prices, but we can control how much of the market we are responsible for. Staying on the incline, when it comes to market share, is our solemn commitment.
Our members might be interested to know that as a group we are targeting $90 billion in sales for the June 2025 financial year, which we expect would deliver to our members $1.78 billion in gross commission. Our sales activity in the first three months of the year delivered over $22.9 billion in unconditional property sales across the group, representing nearly 24,500 property owners. This is a solid 12 per cent improvement in the value of property sold on the same quarter in 2023, and a 10 per cent increase in the number of sales, putting us on track for our annual targets. These sales reflect the overall change in the number of listings from last year, which reached over 30,000 properties for the September quarter which was 11 per cent up on last year.
Our property management teams continue to expand our client relationships, with total properties under management growing over the past year by over seven per cent to 246,000. Given the pressures facing the property investment industry and our teams that deal with the issues that arise from that pressure every day, this is an outstanding result for which they should feel very proud.
But these are averages across all of our markets. Not for some time has there been such variation in activity and conditions across our markets. It is misleading to give a broad ranging statement on what is happening across Australia and New Zealand. We can group Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia together and note that they are experiencing similarly strong conditions, but that new listings in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania have increased substantially and clearance rates have softened a little. New Zealand is on the right trajectory after a brutal few years but it is still in the early phase of a recovery. Our commercial network is starting to re-build momentum off the back of more positive talk regarding 2025 interest rates, as is the rural network.
This divergence of activity and performance across our markets reaffirms the way in which we operate as a corporate team, with state-based (or New Zealand-based) CEOs and resources, who are in turn supported by national specialists that give us deep expertise in so many fields. It’s a structure that seeks to have as much decision-making in the hands of local leaders who are closest to the issues at hand, and can react to change quickly.
Overall, generally it remains an active marketplace. And while there are many positive and negative signals regarding what may lie ahead, we know if we focus on the basics, good things will happen. The best shortcut I know for checking if we are focusing on the basics is analysing our auction data - can we proudly say we are still true believers in creating competition?
Unfortunately, this is where our statistics aren’t as good. We could simply point to our market share of auctions at over 25 per cent and say we are doing well, but we know other agencies will pull back from auctions when listings start to rise. Surely, not us too? When you look at our data, the percentage of properties listed as auctions dropped from 41 per cent to 39 per cent over the past 12 months. Only a slight decline I know, but enough of a decline to be concerned about.
On the subject of a new financial year, I feel it is important that I remind our business owners of the release of the new Profit Pulse. We often speak about the benefits that come from being the market leader and so geographically broad - there is no better example of this than the work of Luke Richardson and his Network Finance team. This team now has an incredible depth of experience in working with business owners to understand their financial position and profit potential. Profit Pulse takes another big step in providing real time insights and benchmarks to assist financial decision making. There is nothing like it in the industry.
As in all industries, our business owners have no choice but to be continually looking for ways to protect and grow margins, as we are challenged by suppliers on costs and by our customers to improve our service to justify our fees. And our industry is different from others - so many times we find our members using external accountants and financial advisors who do not understand our industry and therefore give advice which is unsuitable. Our team are real estate specialists, grounded with deep experience, with a single mandate to support your profitability.
On a final point, a huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our eight awards nights across Australia and New Zealand throughout August and September. It was a very special awards season. We now look ahead to our next big awards night at Connect 2025 on the Gold Coast, 10 and 11 August. That promises to be as special as special gets.
