REA Group Ltd

ASX:REA

Q1-2026 Earnings Call

[Alice Bennett, executive]

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.

[Cameron McIntyre, executive]

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.

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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]

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

[Kane Hannan, analyst]

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?

[Cameron McIntyre, executive]

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.

[Kane Hannan, analyst]

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.

[Cameron McIntyre, executive]

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.

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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.

[Operator]

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

[Eric Choi, analyst]

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.

[Cameron McIntyre, executive]

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...

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

Yield and jaws.

[Cameron McIntyre, executive]

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.

[Eric Choi, analyst]

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.

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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.

[Operator]

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

[Entcho Raykovski, analyst]

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?

[Cameron McIntyre, executive]

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

[Entcho Raykovski, analyst]

I can indeed.

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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.

[Entcho Raykovski, analyst]

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.

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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.

[Entcho Raykovski, analyst]

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?

[Cameron McIntyre, executive]

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.

[Operator]

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

[Lucy Huang, analyst]

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?

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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.

[Lucy Huang, analyst]

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.

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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.

[Operator]

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

[Bob Chen, analyst]

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?

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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.

[Bob Chen, analyst]

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?

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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.

[Operator]

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

[Sriharsh Singh, analyst]

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?

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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.

[Operator]

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

[Fraser Mcleish, analyst]

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?

[Cameron McIntyre, executive]

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.

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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.

[Fraser Mcleish, analyst]

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?

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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.

[Operator]

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

[Siraj Ahmed, analyst]

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?

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

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.

[Operator]

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

[Cameron McIntyre, executive]

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.

[Janelle Hopkins, executive]

Thank you.

[Operator]

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