Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the REA Group Q3 FY 2020 financial results conference call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Graham Curtin, General Manager of Group Finance. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Graham Curtin, General Manager of Group Finance, and I'd like to thank you for joining us to discuss REA Group's results for the third quarter ended 31 March 2020. As you're aware, the quarterly numbers we publish are very much top-line results, so we're restricted in the amount of detail we can give. Our CEO, Owen Wilson, will provide a business update, then our CFO, Janelle Hopkins, will talk to the financial results. Following this, we'll be happy to take any questions you may have. With that, I'll hand over to Owen.
Thanks, Graham, and good morning, everyone. Let me start by saying what an extraordinary few months it's been as governments, businesses, and our communities have grappled with the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis. In the midst of these challenging circumstances, REA delivered an improved performance for the quarter ended 31 March. This reflected the continued recovery of the real estate market prior to the effects of COVID-19 and excellent cost management. Revenue was AUD 199.8 million, an increase of 1%, and EBITDA from core operations, excluding share of losses from associates and joint ventures, was AUD 119.6 million, an increase of 8%. During the quarter, we saw gradual improvements in national residential listings led by Melbourne and Sydney. This trend was particularly evident in the first half of March. National listings were up 3% midway through March, with listing increases of 15% in Melbourne and 24% in Sydney.
This was before the impact of COVID-19 was felt, which caused listings to finish down 2% for the month. Overall, national residential listings declined 7% for the quarter, while Melbourne and Sydney were up 6% and 5% respectively. In the developer market, new project commencements were down 24%. Before I talk to our business highlights, I'd like to acknowledge and thank all of REA Group's employees for their incredible efforts throughout the quarter. I've been extremely proud of the way our team has not only successfully adapted to virtual working arrangements, but also by the way they've rapidly delivered so many innovative solutions to support our customers and consumers. Never before has the delivery of new products, features, and support measures been so critical to ensure Australia continues to have a well-functioning property market. I'll touch on some of these later.
Looking at market conditions prior to the impact of COVID-19, the property market was in full flight. We saw listing volumes continually improving in the weeks leading up to mid-March. We also saw record audience numbers and strong buyer activity. February saw our highest ever number of visits to realestate.com.au at 93.5 million, up 18% year-on-year. We also had record app launches at 38.6 million, up 26% year-on-year. In March, we hit a new record audience number with 10.7 million people visiting our site, up 23% year-on-year. Inquiries for property for sale on realestate.com.au were up 29% year-on-year for the quarter, while average auction clearance rates remained high at 77% for the quarter across Melbourne and Sydney. These numbers demonstrate the positive market momentum we were seeing pre-COVID-19.
Turning now to our strategy, we recognize the importance of actively managing short-term business requirements while staying focused on the delivery of long-term growth opportunities. This balance will ensure we continue our position of strength post-COVID-19. Our core priorities remain unchanged. Firstly, providing our customers with access to the largest and most engaged audience of property seekers. Secondly, providing the richest content, data, and insights to empower our customers and consumers throughout their property journey. Thirdly, delivering superior customer value through products and features that drive valuable leads and great ROI. Turning to our consumer and customer highlights for the quarter, we're continuing to push boundaries, launching innovative solutions while working virtually. Our focus has been to enable real estate agents to successfully connect with as many consumers as possible despite social distancing restrictions. Responding to the government ban of in-person auctions, REA launched online auctions.
This new feature enables agents to promote their vendors' upcoming auctions and seamlessly link through to the preferred auction technology platform. Since launch, we've formed partnerships with four of Australia's leading online auction providers, and we've seen hundreds of properties listed for online auction on our site. We launched digital inspections. We've seen incredible uptake since launch. Over 47,000 buy and rent listings now feature virtual tours, helping connect agents with buyers and renters. We're currently seeing over 2 million views each week across digital inspections and 3D tours. At a time when Australians are looking for trusted sources of property news, total visits to the news section on realestate.com.au increased 80% for the quarter year-on-year. In April, we hit a new record number of visits at 6.6 million.
Our team of journalists and economists are providing insightful content to allow people to make the most informed decisions while also helping to stimulate the market generally. During the quarter, we launched the ability for consumers to search by address in the realestate.com.au app. This means app users can now quickly find any property in Australia, including listings to buy or rent, or the property valuation and history for the 14 million properties on our site. Turning to our customer highlights, our customers remain front and center as we look to counteract the market challenges COVID-19 creates. We've introduced a range of support measures to provide our customers with financial relief. We also changed our listing products to give agents greater flexibility and the tools they need to help give vendors the confidence to list their properties.
These initiatives include reduced subscription fees, providing the ability to relist or re-upgrade for free, campaign extensions for new developments, shorter duration products, and delayed contract price increases until further notice. Responding to agent feedback, last week we announced a number of additional offers available to our Premiere All customers designed to help stimulate the market. This includes our new Pay on Sale offering, which will be in market until 30 June. With Pay on Sale, our Premiere All customers can apply this product to 20% of their listings, which means the vendors' advertising costs are paid only if the property is sold. We've received incredibly positive customer feedback around the flexibility and variety of offers we now have in market, with an option available to suit every vendor. To help our customers stay on top of the most recent COVID-19 news, REA introduced weekly newsletters, videos, and webinars featuring our economists.
To date, almost 7,000 customers have attended our webinars, and our market-related videos have been viewed over 200,000 times, proving to be highly relevant support tools. Turning to our financial services business, we have now generated almost AUD 2.5 billion in home loan applications. Pleasingly, we have seen higher recruitment of new brokers and an increase in settlements compared to the same period last year. During the quarter, we successfully consolidated our broker offerings under the Smartline brand. We are now directly connecting realestate.com.au consumers with all of our brokers, with leads flowing straight into the Smartline platform. This is further streamlining the process of helping people to finance their next property. Looking at our Asia business, like Australia, our priority has been to ensure the health and safety of our employees while delivering appropriate customer support measures in response to COVID-19.
During the quarter, Malaysia and Hong Kong both maintained their leadership positions at 1.5 times and 1.1 times their nearest competitor, respectively. Janelle will provide more color on the Asian results. The 99.co JV was successfully finalized on the 28th of February. It's exciting to have the JV underway as it strengthens our competitive position in the growth markets of Singapore and Indonesia. Before I hand over to Janelle, a few closing remarks from me regarding current market conditions. COVID-19 continues to have a negative effect on the real estate market, which will impact the group's revenue. However, we know that Australians' passion for property remains. We've seen a strong rebound in buyer activity on our site in April. Search activity on realestate.com.au is now back to the levels seen prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the weekly low of five weeks ago, for sale search activity has increased 46% nationally, and rental search activity is 45% higher. For the month of April, visits to the buy section of the site were up 20% year-on-year, while buyer inquiries were up 24% year-on-year. While buyer interest is strong, customers are telling us there is still some hesitation to commit to transactions in the current environment, and we've not seen any sign of listings recovery at this stage. We do know that a return of consumer confidence will be a key factor to the recovery of the housing market. We now have the tools in place for agents to provide vendors with the confidence to bring their properties to market. At the same time, we're beginning to see the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions that impacted the property market.
Open for inspections and on-site auctions will recommence in New South Wales this weekend and other states the following to varying degrees. REA is well placed to support vendors and customers as the market returns. I'll now hand over to Janelle to talk through our financial results in more detail.
Thanks, Owen, and good morning, everyone. REA delivered an improved performance for the quarter, reflecting the continued recovery of the real estate market prior to the effects of COVID-19 emerging in mid-March. Revenue for the quarter from core operations grew by 1% to AUD 199.8 million. Core operating expenses were down 9% on prior year at AUD 80.2 million, and EBITDA from core operations, excluding share of associate losses, increased by 8% to AUD 119.6 million due to the continued focus on cost management across the group. Despite the increase in EBITDA, free cash flow reduced by 20% for the period, primarily due to timing factors, with stronger debtor collections this December versus prior year, a reduction in trade payables, and an increase in tax installment payments during the period.
As Owen noted earlier, despite the Australian property market showing strong signs of recovery during the quarter, led by Melbourne and Sydney, with their listings growing 6% and 5% respectively, national residential listings declined 7% over the three-month period. Australian residential revenue was flat for the period. The stronger revenue growth achieved from the recovery in Melbourne and Sydney, combined with the benefits of price changes, higher depth penetration, and improved product mix, has not yet offset the weaker market conditions still being felt in other parts of the country. Moving to the commercial and developer business, revenue increased as a result of higher depth penetration in the commercial business and extended project profile duration in the developer business. This was partially offset by lower developer revenue due to the 24% decline in project commencements for the quarter.
BIS Oxford is projecting further declines for the remainder of this calendar year. Media, data, and other revenue declined due to the reduction in developer display advertising as a result of lower new project commencements, reduced advertising revenue in key segments following the bushfires, and lower available inventory as Premiere listings increased. Pleasingly, financial services revenue increased due to higher settlements in line with stronger property market and improved broker productivity, coupled with the timing of partnership payments during the period. The Asia segment revenue also increased for the quarter, driven by strong growth in Malaysia, underpinned by improved customer acquisition. This was partially offset by the ongoing disruption in Hong Kong and event cancellations in response to COVID-19. As planned, on the 28th of February, we finalized the 99.co JV , which resulted in an on-call gain on sale of AUD 7.7 million.
The operating results of the joint venture are now included in the share of equity accounted investments. The group continued its cost management program with reductions in marketing, consultant costs, and discretionary spend. Combined with efficiencies gained from an organizational realignment undertaken in the first quarter, this resulted in a 9% reduction in core operating expenditure. During the quarter, the board approved and paid an interim dividend of AUD 72.4 million, or AUD 0.55 per share. This was a consistent payout ratio to prior year. Turning to our balance sheet, we have a strong balance sheet, low debt levels, and a cash balance of AUD 135 million at 30 April 2020.
As a contingency against the potential impacts of COVID-19 having a more significant and prolonged impact on the market, we have further strengthened our liquidity position by entering into an AUD 149 million loan facility with our banking group, plus obtained an AUD 20 million overdraft with NAB. On our current estimates, neither of these contingent facilities are expected to be drawn this quarter. Looking forward, the real estate market continues to be negatively impacted by COVID-19, which will impact the group's revenue. Since mid-March, there has been a negative impact on residential listings, with April national residential listings down 33%, with declines of 27% in Melbourne and 18% in Sydney. Our customer support initiatives include increased advertising duration, which is expected to extend the revenue recognition period. The group is working proactively to offset a portion of the anticipated revenue decline by implementing cost-saving initiatives.
These include workforce planning measures, reduction in marketing costs, and a review of all supplier arrangements. Our Q4 core operating expenses are expected to be approximately 20% lower compared to Q4 last year. We believe these cost-saving initiatives are balanced to support both the short-term performance and long-term growth initiatives of the group. I will pause there. Operator, we will now open for questions.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Kane Hannan from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Just a few from me, please. Just firstly, obviously, the million-dollar question around the listings outlook. I know it's obviously difficult to predict, but just interested in your views around whether you think it's likely to get worse from the exact numbers before it gets better, I suppose the phasing of the recovery back until we get to a more normalized turnover level. Secondly, just again, a bit of a higher-level question around your pricing structure. Given those price deferrals, the Pay on Sale introduction, the leads pricing is still a bit of a work in progress. Just interested in your thoughts around whether this could present a bit of an opportunity to do something more significant with your pricing structure and then the various tiers. And then finally, just lastly, the free cash flow.
Just interested in what drove the decline in the quarter and how we should be thinking about that into the fourth quarter. Cheers.
Thanks, Kane. In terms of listing outlook, it is very difficult to forecast what's going to happen to listings. It is very encouraging that we're seeing so much buyer activity on our site that usually if the buyers are there, sellers will follow, but we've not seen any sign of recovery in listings as we sit here today. The good news is it's also not getting worse. As the restrictions are lifted across the country, you would see a more normal operating property market. We do know the banks are lending, and we do know interest rates are at all-time lows. Whether we've hit the bottom now or not, it's hard to tell and hard to predict where it's going to go. It does feel like conditions are going to be better as we go forward.
All that is predicated on, obviously, there being no rebound in the virus and the need to go back to further restrictions. In terms of pricing, again, I think you're right. I think we've given ourselves a license at some stage in the future to review our price, and I think the moves we've taken have been incredibly favorably received by our customers. They appreciate the deferral of the price increase that was contracted for 1 July. They've also greatly appreciated the flexibility we've shown in our products, our subscription discounts, etc. I would say that that does give us flexibility, I think, in terms of the magnitude of future price increases. I'll let Janelle talk to the cash flow question.
Thanks, Kane. On the free cash flow, it really is the timing issue for this quarter where the benefit we've got from higher EBITDA flowing through to cash has been offset by lower debtor collections. We put a new collection system in last year, so actually our debtor collections were stronger this December than last December, and that's then flowed into this quarter. Our timing of our creditor payments were also lower, and our tax installments were higher. On Q4, it's really hard to predict. Obviously, it's going to base on what happens from an EBITDA perspective. I can say in relation to April, we haven't seen any deterioration. Our collections are strong and no deterioration in our debtors' books so far.
Perfect. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Eric Choi from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Thanks for the questions. I'm going to have another go at the listings. Just wondering if you can tell us what's happening to new listings on a week-on-week basis. Given there was sort of a bounce in Western Australia post the easing of their restrictions, whether we've seen any sort of positive signals in New South Wales as well. Just a second question on rentals. Can you just tell us how rental listing volume movements compare to that 33% decline that we saw in for sale listings? Just lastly on costs. I think you're guiding to a mid-70s cost number in the June quarter, but just because that's a seasonally high-cost quarter, I'm just wondering if we can go even lower than that into FY2021 if required.
Look, Eric, on listings, as I said, week on week, we're not seeing any change from April. I think it's too early for the lifting of restrictions in New South Wales to flow through to listings at this point. It takes a while between a vendor making contact with an agent and getting a listing on site. It hasn't come through yet in New South Wales. If Western Australia is an indication of where things might go when restrictions are lifted, that is encouraging. It's just we're not seeing it yet. Rental listings have been very steady. We did see a surge in rental listings in April, and that was largely off the back. We think a lot of Airbnb landlords were trying to switch to more traditional tenancy arrangements because people can't travel. Airbnb revenue was down to zero, and they were coming back.
We also, I think, saw vacancies from accommodation that was normally for foreign students. We think that was coming back on the market. As we sit here today, rental listings are pretty flat. It is a very stable market, the rental market. No major impact from that.
On costs, Eric, clearly in Q4, we've taken significant action in response to the expected declines in revenue. They include things like looking at our staffing costs, looking at all our discretionary expenditure, and pausing some of our marketing spend, particularly on things like customer events where we can't hold them at the moment. Absolutely looking at all of our supplier arrangements and renegotiating them in this current environment. When we think into 2021, there'll be a combination of impacts. Some of the benefits we will have from Q4 will play through into 2021 because there'll be permanent savings flowing through from things like the organizational restructure we did at the start of this year. Some are timing. Things like the supplier renegotiations are more of a timing nature.
Ideally, the costs we've taken, some of them we'd really be liking to put back in, things like marketing. It will really depend on our revenue position going forward into 2021.
Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Eric Pine from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my question. Just two for me. There's been an increase in off-market listings during the crisis. How much do you estimate that has impacted your listing volume, and are you seeing that trend proliferating? Just secondly, what are you seeing in terms of the U.S. and Indian markets in terms of impact on the crisis? Should we be expecting increased losses from those markets?
Look, in terms of off-market listings, Eric, I mean, by their nature, they're impossible to measure. It is very hard to tell. We hear anecdotally that in some areas they've increased. I think that was largely in response to some consumers and vendors being reluctant to commit to marketing in this environment. That is why we brought some of the measures in, just to give our customers the tools they need to give vendors the confidence to list. We haven't seen any noticeable increase, but as I said, it is very hard to measure. What I would say, and our customers are saying this to vendors, is that in this market, your property will be invisible if you do not show it to the 10.7 million people on our site. It is really, I think, only a desperate vendor who does not list in this environment.
In terms of the U.S. market, they've had very heavy impacts of COVID-19 across there. Depending on what happens to their restrictions, you've seen all the protests. They are looking to lift restrictions almost regardless of the health outcomes. As you heard on the news call, the support measures we've put in place will have an impact on revenue in Q4. What did not get a lot of coverage is that they've also taken a lot of cost measures and taken a lot of cost out of their market, but we do not give a forecast for that business.
In terms of the Indian subsidiary?
Indian subsidiary, again, India is in shutdown. It is having an impact on the business, and therefore you can expect that their numbers will reflect that.
Great. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Lucy Hoang from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Morning, Owen. Morning, Janelle. Thanks for taking questions. I just have three. Firstly, are you able to talk or give some more color around debt penetration? Have you seen growth across the state? Do you think in this environment you're continuing to take share from competitors, or do you think the market's holding relatively stable? Secondly, in terms of the new products that you mentioned, like digital auctions and inspections, do you think there's a pathway to monetization in the future? I guess, do you think this trend is likely to continue with agents more receptive to using these products? Just one last one on the pace of sale pricing structure. I guess moving forward, once we cycle out COVID-19, do you think there is likely to be a push from agents to keep that model in place? What's your view on that?
Just in the near term as well, what kind of financial impact do you think that will have on top line in the near term? Thanks.
I'll speak to the options and Pay on Sale, and I'll let Janelle talk to penetration. Look, in terms of online auctions, it has been a necessary way for auctions to take place given the restrictions. What we're hearing from our customers is post-COVID, they would much prefer to go back to the in-street or in-room auctions. Our customers, our vendors love the theater of that, the in-street auction. It is a good way to talk to unsuccessful bidders, etc. There will be probably online auctions in some form, maybe on things like land and developments, but I don't think it's going to stay as a permanent feature to the level it is at the moment. In terms of Pay on Sale, that is at a premium price to a normal Premiere listing. That is to offset the fact that some of the properties that get listed won't sell.
It's going to have a very minimal impact on overall revenue, but it will increase deferral of revenue. Revenue recognition will be extended because obviously we can't recognize the revenue until the property has sold. Whether that's a permanent feature, we will wait and see how it performs. It's in the market for two months. We'll seek feedback from vendors, from our customers, and make a call on that further on.
In response to the question on penetration, yes, absolutely. We're seeing growth in penetration again this quarter and across all states.
Just to follow up, sorry, with the pay to sale listing, what type of premium has been applied? Are you able to give us an indication?
Yeah, it's a 20% premium.
Thank you.
What I should say, whilst auctions, digital auctions probably will go back to normal. My view is that digital inspections are here to stay. We're seeing 2 million views a week to digital inspections. I think consumers are going to want to have that as a feature of our market going forward. It will enable them to really hone down on the ones they want to inspect physically. Physical inspections won't go away, but I think you'll find consumers do less of them because they can eliminate the ones that don't suit their needs via the digital inspection tool.
Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Entcho Raykovski from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Hi, Owen. Hi, Janelle. First, I'm just going to have a go at the penetration question as well, maybe a bit more specifically. Looks like on an overall basis, the benefit from penetration is pretty limited, even though Sydney and Melbourne volumes are up for the quarter. I guess if we look at national being down 7%, the price increase of 7% exactly offsetting it. I guess, can you talk a bit further as to why that's driving it? I mean, did you see lower debt penetration in particular regions? I know you've broadly talked about that. From a timing perspective, was there a pickup towards the end of the quarter, particularly in March, as volumes improved? Sorry, I know that's a long question, but that's the first one.
Secondly, around costs, could you give us an indication of the breakdown of the cost reductions for Q4 between the different buckets, so workforce, marketing, and supplier arrangements? I am just interested whether you factor in any job keeper benefits in that guidance and whether you think you are likely to be eligible.
Thanks, Entcho. On the penetration, we have seen increased penetration, as I said in the answer before. The challenge for this quarter is we did see the substantial growth in Melbourne and Sydney coming through in late February and into March. What you do not see is, obviously, from a revenue recognition perspective, some of the benefit of that is deferred into April because they are 60-day products. You do not see as much of the benefit coming through. Plus, in March, we did put those new offers out, which did also increase a deferral in the March result. Some of that is masking some of the benefit you are getting from penetration.
Got it. Sorry, just as a follow-up to that, could you give us an idea of what sort of benefit the fourth quarter might get from some of that deferral?
Oh, we're not disclosing that at this point in time.
Okay.
On costs, so clearly we've looked across the board at costs. Obviously, the two biggest drivers of the cost basis is marketing and staff costs. On marketing, clearly, the savings will be coming through because we cannot do as many of the customer events. We're not splitting out the delta between what is actually marketing savings versus staff savings. On the staff savings, as I flagged, it is things like we've looked at our bonus achievement percentages. We've also looked at where in the current environment roles can't be performed. We've looked at whether we can redeploy them into other areas of the business where we're very busy, like our customer operations support area. Plus, we've taken a decision to do a few additional short-term shutdowns of the business to save costs. That will benefit that staff line.
On job keeper, we get grouped with News Corp, and we have to have a greater than 50% reduction in revenue. We do not qualify for job keeper, and we never do.
Okay. No, that's clear. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Roger Samuel from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hi, morning all. Most of my questions have been answered, but I do have one, which is just in terms of your Premiere All contracts. Do you think you can sign up more agents to Premiere All in this environment?
Absolutely. We have signed customers to Premiere All in the last few weeks. In fact, that's been one of the most pleasing aspects, that our staff have adapted so well to working virtually that we have had some big revenue wins done virtually by our sales force, including new Premiere signings in areas where we're not as heavily penetrated as others. Absolutely. If you look at the offers we put out last week for our Premiere customers around Pay on Sale and some of the other flexibility we're giving them, it's never been a more compelling time to sign up to Premiere All. We are getting a lot of interest from customers.
Okay. Right. Do you get a sense of the real estate agency industry and whether people are going out of business and potentially they may cancel your subscription and the contracts as well?
No, we're not seeing any signs of our customers going out of business. This is not the first market downturn we've seen. I mean, even this time last year, we were talking about some pretty heavy drops in listings. Our customers have become quite adept at managing through cycles. I think they've been very quick to act on their own costs. I think most of our customers will qualify for job keeper. They will qualify also for some of the support measures that the banks are putting in place. As Janelle said, we're not seeing any degradation in our debt balances, our payments, etc. I think our customers are managing it through this well.
Okay. Fantastic. Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Your next question comes from Paul Mason from E&P. Please go ahead. Pardon me. Paul Mason from E&P, your line is live. Please go ahead. Your next question comes from Ivor Ries from Morgans Financial. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Owen. Ivor Ries here. Just a question to refresh my memory on the extension to 60-day terms for your products. Does that apply to all of your debt products now or just a limited set?
That is the offer we put out in March. That does apply to all of our debt products. The offer was that if a property does not sell in the term that is contracted, you get to relist at the same level for free.
Yeah. Is there a sort of a?
It's a money price, really, to properties that don't sell.
Yeah. Is there a sort of a sunset clause on that offer? Does it expire after six months or something rather, or is it in place for 12 months?
No, no, no. All of our offers expire on 30 June. There is one offer that we have got in for our Premiere All customers only, which is the shorter duration product. That is only for May, but everything else expires on 30 June.
Right. Fantastic. Thanks, Owen.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Fraser McLeish from MST Marquee. Please go ahead.
Great. Thanks. Hi, Owen. Hi, Janelle. Just for me, just on the contracted price changes that you've delayed, should we expect that 12-month delay, or would your intention still be to sort of hit the button on that contracted increase when market conditions improve? That's my first one. Just my second one, Owen, just to qualify, just on the comments around the short-term listings, I mean, Domain, I think, had said since Easter, they'd actually started to see listings kind of flat or a bit better each week. You're saying you're not seeing that? Thanks.
Okay. Now, look, in terms of the price increases, we've said to defer until further notice, and that will depend on the market. As I said, I think that the support we've shown to the market in general and our customers in particular has given us license to make that price increase if the market returns or wait 12 months and do something, I think, larger next year. We'll really just wait and watch and see what happens to the market and do the right thing by our customers and the market in general. In terms of listings, we haven't seen week-on-week increases. I think I did see the comments made by Domain, and I suspect they were looking at a week Easter was in different weeks, this April versus April last year.
If you looked at a week compared to the Easter prior, you did get some crazy numbers. If you look at April as a whole, our numbers are quite consistent. If you look at what is happening into May, they are roughly similar to April. As I said, we have not seen an increase yet in listings. I cannot comment on what they were saying or what they were commenting on.
I thought they were talking about versus PCP. I think they were just saying on absolute level, the week after April was a bit better, and the week after that was a little bit better. Still big declines on PCP.
Yeah, I can't comment on what they—I can only comment on what we see.
Yeah. Okay. All right. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Paul Mason from E&P. Please go ahead.
Hey, guys. Sorry about before. Just one from me. Just wanted to get your thoughts on sort of elasticity of demand. Yeah, today you guys have shown sort of 1% revenue gains and a volume impact that's sort of negative 7%. And we've seen from your competitor similar revenue gains despite a much higher quoted overall yield gain, which implies a bigger volume impact. I just want to get your thoughts on sort of how we can interpret the relativities of those two reports.
I think we've said before our competitor is very much heavily dependent on Melbourne and Sydney. You saw that last year when Melbourne and Sydney led the decline, they were impacted much more significantly than we were. As you saw in these numbers, Melbourne and Sydney were leading the recovery. Therefore, they get a better benefit from that. Melbourne and Sydney are clearly the highest yielding markets for both of us. If you're heavily dependent on Melbourne and Sydney and Melbourne and Sydney are going up, you're going to see a different outcome. We've got a much more balanced portfolio across the country. Unfortunately, during the quarter, the non-Melbourne and Sydney markets were down.
Okay. Thanks.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll now hand back to Mr. Wilson for closing remarks.
Great. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. Look, it's no doubt that these are strange and uncertain times, and we face circumstances that none of us have seen before. What I do know is that REA is very well placed to manage through these conditions and continue our position of strength well into the future. We look forward to updating you again when we release our full year results. Thanks, everyone.