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McGrath Estate Agents CEO John McGrath has lofty plans for market share growth over the next five years.
In a conversation with Real Estate Business following on from the release of the company’s half-year results for financial year 2024, he acknowledged the “tough” market for real estate over the past six months and the efforts made by the brand to combat the challenging stock shortage.
Despite the macro market conditions, the ASX-listed company did achieve a 42 per cent increase in operating profit, which the CEO detailed as “a good sign”.
But he also stressed the focus of the business as “always about market share”.
“The market can be declining, but if our market share is growing, we can still keep growing the business,” he continued.
On a national level, at present, McGrath’s share of the market reportedly sits just below 3 per cent, which the CEO said “is a little bit unfair to us because we’re obviously only in a certain portion”.
“Generally, in the sort of pockets we operate in, we range between around 2.5 and 5 per cent market share. In pockets, we’re up to 84 per cent – our largest market share anywhere.”
Stating the business’s focus as being “on the things that we can control”, Mr McGrath iterated that market share is one of those things.
“We try and avoid any excuses like shortage of listings or lack of confidence because people are still going to buy and sell to a degree. So, we just need to make sure our market share keeps growing.”
As the brand looks to expand out further than the eastern seaboard, “we’d definitely like to become the number one agent in Australia, which means increasing our market share above Ray White, which means getting up to double digit, 12.5 to 15 per cent market share”.
“We’re very focused on doing that over the next five years and we’re very excited,” he continued.
“We think we’ve got the platform, we think we’ve got the team, we think we’ve got the brand.”
With the company’s half-yearly results described as “strong”, it was revealed that McGrath had underlying EBIT of $4.2 million, underlying EBITDA of $4.8 million, and statutory net profit after tax of $7.5 million.
The statutory net profit after tax result was, in itself, a $5.7 million increase on the prior corresponding period, while underlying EBITDA was a 42 per cent ($1.4 million) increase over the same period.
Mr McGrath said the company was “delighted with the result”, going on to share that it was a reflection of the “focus of our management team, outstanding agents and our strong brand”.
Based on the results, McGrath Estate Agents has declared a 1.5 cent fully franked interim dividend per share, and a 1.5 cent per share fully franked special dividend.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Grace Ormsby
Grace is a journalist across Momentum property and investment brands. Grace joined Momentum Media in 2018, bringing with her a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) from the University of Newcastle. She’s passionate about delivering easy to digest information and content relevant to her key audiences and stakeholders.
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