PropNex, Singapore’s largest listed real estate agency, has reported earnings of $31.2 million for FY2020, up 47.8% y-o-y. Revenue in the same period was up 22.8% to $515.6 million, with a bigger volume of transactions handled for both private and public housing eve amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The various cooling measures introduced had effectively reduced speculators in the real estate market. The current resilience in the market was fuelled by ample liquidity and low interest rates,” says Ismail Gafoor, co-founder, executive chairman and CEO of PropNex, referring to the growth in activities in the second half of 2020.

As a result, the property market returned with relatively more activities in the second half of 2020. For the whole of 2020, private home prices climbed 2.2%, following the 2.7% rise in 2019. Meanwhile, HDB resale prices rose by 5%, thereby underpinning the overall resilience of the real estate market in Singapore.” 

SEE:Analysts maintain 'add' and 'buy' calls on PropNex after strong quarter

As at Dec 31 2020, PropNex, which remains debt-free, held cash and cash equivalents of $105.8 million, up from $81.6 million as at Dec 31 2019.

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The company plans to pay a final dividend of four cents per share, which, together with the interim dividend of 1.5 cents already paid, will bring FY2020 payout to 5.5 cents. This translates into a payout ratio of around 70% and a yield of 7% based on its share price of 79 cents on Feb 22.

As at Feb 22, PropNex has a total of 9,057 salespersons, or agents. As at Jan 1 2020, there were 8,327 agents. The company aims to increase this number to 10,000 by 2022.

PropNex shares closed at Feb 23 at 78 cents, down 1.2%.