Strong growth and net sales profitability as we continue expanding our product portfolio

Hemnet’s results for 2022 highlight strong growth and execution, despite a challenging second half of the year for the property market. Our accelerated product development pace, high consumer and real estate agent demand, and our resilient business model have all been key factors behind this year’s strong results that exceeded all of our financial targets, with net sales growing 22.1 percent to 889.2 MSEK and adjusted EBITDA growing 26.2 percent to 448.1 MSEK

The first half of 2022 was characterised by a very active real estate market, which cooled in the autumn due to increased inflation and announced interest rate increases. As a result, the number of listings on Hemnet fluctuated more than in a typical year but was on par with 2021 for the year as a whole. We continued to grow our net sales from property sellers through increased sales of our value-added services (Hemnet Plus, Hemnet Premium, Raketen and “Renewal”) combined with continued product development and price adjustments. In the year, revenue from property sellers increased by 32.6, and ARPL by 32.8 percent, showcasing the strength and resilience of our business model, also in more challenging market conditions.

Accelerated product development

During the year, we have invested in and accelerated our product development to expand our product offering to consumers, property sellers and business partners. We have, amongst other things, launched a new section for searching for a real estate agent on Hemnet, which has quickly become one of the largest agent search services in Sweden. We have also repackaged our offering for property developers to increase clarity and customer value. Further, we have improved the logged-in experience on Hemnet. By login in and registering their home under ”My Home,” our users can access relevant local market information and get a value indication for their home. “My home” is a great example of how we broaden Hemnet’s position and create opportunities to take an even more active role in assisting consumers throughout their property journey. All of these new features also demonstrate our goal of providing an enhanced experience for our visitors while also opening up more business opportunities for our business partners.

Continued sustainability steps

We are proud of the many sustainability-related steps we have taken during the year. For example, we joined the Science Based Target initiative and committed to reducing our CO2 emissions in scopes 1 and 2 by 42 percent by 2030. In the coming year, we will complement this commitment by establishing a clear plan to reduce emissions in scope 3 as well. We have also expanded our social commitment by adding Sweden for UNHCR to the NGOs we work with, and we have improved our internal structure of how to inform and educate our employees in key governance documents, such as our Code of Conduct. We believe that a diverse and inclusive culture is key to our innovation and product development capabilities. It is very gratifying to see various proofs that we are on the right track. We score an exceptionally high employee Net Promoter Score of +50 and have been named one of Sweden’s best employers by Universum as well as received the AllBright award for being at the very forefront of diversity, inclusion and equality among Swedish public companies. We are committed to taking further steps in all our sustainability areas to become one of Sweden’s best employers, , live by strong ethical principles, combat climate change and create positive social impact.

A strategy for long-term success and growth

The property market continues to be challenging as the new year has commenced, but history has shown that the Swedish property market is stable in the long term. While we cannot control the market, we can control our ability to continue delivering according to our strategy and creating more value for our customers. Through investments and continued momentum in product development, we believe that we are in a stronger position than ever. We will continue to invest in our core business and offering while strengthening and broadening our position. This is why we have reiterated our financial target of 45-50 percent adjusted EBITDA margin for 2023, despite current market conditions, and introduced a new, long-term, profitability target of an adjusted EBITDA margin exceeding 55 percent. We have also reiterated our financial targets for net sales growth, leverage, and capital allocation.

During 2022, Hemnet has returned SEK 374 million back to our shareholders, through a combination of dividends and a share buyback program. The share buyback program continues until the 2023 AGM and all repurchased shares will be eligible for redemption at the AGM, in a testament to Hemnet’s strong cash conversion and consistent share buybacks.

We maintain our position as one of Sweden’s strongest brands, and the leading Swedish property portal, by averaging over 50 million monthly visits and 19 times more visitors per listing than our nearest competitor. We are however still in the early stages of our commercial journey and have many opportunities ahead of us to reach our full potential. I look forward to continuing this journey and keep developing and improve Sweden’s largest and most relevant property platform in 2023 together with the rest of the Hemnet team.

Cecilia Beck-Friis, CEO Hemnet