By NIU Yu
Real estate agent KE Holdings has declared a gross transaction (GTV) value of 3.8 trillion yuan (US$600 billion) last year, up 10 percent and representing a 14.6 percent increase in revenue to 80.8 billion yuan.
New homes contributed more than half of overall performance, but sales shrunk in Q4. Although GTV and revenue increased, profits fell from 16.9 billion yuan to 15.8 billion yuan. Having only achieved profitability in 2020, a net loss of 525 million yuan is far from good news in a struggling sector.
Net revenue of 2.3 billion yuan, was less than half the previous year’s figure. In Q4 GTV decreased by more than 30 percent compared with Q4 2020. KE now has more than 50,000 branches, an increase of 8.7 percent year-over-year, though the number of agents actually fell by more or less the same amount.
CEO PENG Yongdong said KE’s underlying assessment of the housing market remains unchanged, but the company plans to engage in more home renovations and interior design. To that end, KE has acquired Shengdu Decoration.
Though many cities have relaxed real estate control policies and the recovery of the property market is expected to pick up speed, Q1 revenue is expected to come in at only 11.5 billion yuan, a decrease of around 40 percent.
