

Under the STEP brand name, Sumitomo Real Estate Sales operates
a network of brokerage offices with close ties to local communities.
The network has been steadily expanded and upgraded, and
the number of offices reached 243 by the end of March 2011. Because
all of the brokerage offices are directly operated, the network boasts
high profit margins. Sumitomo Real Estate Sales holds the number one
position in the industry in terms of brokerage revenue from direct
operations and in terms of profitability.
In the future, the company will continue working to expand its
marketing base and increase its market share.
In the existing home market, the environment remained favorable in the year under review, and the number of contracts increased. However, in March, when the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred, the number of contracts in the Tokyo Metropolitan area declined, and there were?a number of cases in which deliveries were delayed until April.
In this setting, despite sluggish transactions in March, transactions in our mainstay brokerage operations increased 4.4%, to 31,293, setting a new record-high. Additionally, the average transaction price increased, and transaction value rose 8.4%, to ¥834.6 billion. As a result, we recorded another year of higher revenue and income, with revenue from operations rising 4.1% year on year, to ¥46.4 billion, and operating income up 13.5%, to ¥12.2 billion.
In brokerage operations, we will continue to upgrade existing offices while
striving to improve sales efficiency. Through these efforts, we will aim to
increase the number of brokerage transactions to a record-high level
and achieve our third consecutive year of increased revenue and income.
Accordingly, for the March 2012 fiscal year we forecast revenue from
operations of ¥48.0 billion, up 3.4%, and operating income of ¥13.0
billion, up 6.5%.
