By Stuart Condie

SYDNEY--REA Group Ltd.'s annual profit rose 18% against the backdrop of a surging Australian property market, but the online real-estate advertiser warned of lower listing volumes at the start of its fiscal 2022 because of pandemic lockdowns.

The ASX-listed company on Friday reported an underlying profit for the 12 months ended June 30 of 318.0 million Australian dollars ($235.4 million), compared with A$268.9 million a year earlier. Net profit, which includes one-off items, almost trebled to A$322.7 million when compared with FY 2020's impairment-heavy result.

Revenue rose 13% to A$927.8 million and the company lifted its final dividend to A$0.72 per share, from A$0.55 a year earlier.

REA said listing volumes were down 3.0% in July--the first month of its fiscal 2022--during new pandemic lockdowns. Sydney volumes were 22% lower, it said.

The last 12-18 months had shown markets recovering quickly when restrictions are lifted, REA said. It said it is still seeing strong levels of buyer enquiry underpinned by low interest rates and healthy bank liquidity, and that it continued to target a higher rate of income growth than expenses growth, excluding the impact of consolidating acquisitions.

REA is 61% owned by News Corp., which owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this newswire and The Wall Street Journal.

Write to Stuart Condie at stuart.condie@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

08-05-21 1845ET