Domain Holdings says its profit dropped by more than a third amid a "very sharp and very sudden" decline in listings last year.
The online real estate marketplace said on Thursday it made $14.1 million in net profit after tax for the six months to December 31, down 38.9 per cent from the same time a year ago. Revenue was up 6.5 per cent to $186.6 million.
"The challenges of the current property environment are well known given the dramatic change in global inflation and geopolitical risk, and the impact of nine interest rate increases in nine months," said CEO and managing director Jason Pellegrino.
But he said the company remained optimistic for the longer-term prospects for the real estate market, given the return of immigration, encouraging auction clearance rates, and investors being increasingly attracted to rising rental yields.
"While this has been a very difficult period for listings, with a decline that was very sharp and very sudden, history has shown that we can be confident these listings have not disappeared," Mr Pellegrino said.
"It's only a matter of time for confidence to recover and support the inevitable bounce-back in market listings."
He said the steep decline in listings wasn't driven by rates being higher, so much as the uncertainty about how high they would go.
"We've seen interest rate environments in the past where we've had mortgage rates north of seven per cent and very high and healthy transaction volumes," Mr Pellegrino said.
"What's really impacted over the last time, particularly, was the rate and pace of change was unexpected."
He said Domain had seen some green shoots, with improving buyer inquiries and open-for-inspection activity.
Mr Pellegrino said that despite the downturn, the company has still been launching new products, such as one that advertises all of a real estate agent's listings on Facebook.
Domain has also tried to control costs, cutting the equivalent of 70 full-time positions, chief financial officer Rob Doyle told analysts on a conference call on Thursday.
Domain announced a fully franked dividend of two cents per share, unchanged from a year ago.
At 3.15pm AEDT, Domain shares were up 4.6 per cent to $3.20.
