KE Holdings Looks to Rentals As Weak Chinese Market Caps Q3 Revenue Growth at 2%

The Chinese brokerage and real estate marketplace operator KE Holdings (aka Beike) saw revenue rise two percent year-on-year in Q3 as Gross Transaction Volume (GTV) stayed flat. Notable points from the company's report on its activities for the three months ended September 30th include:

• Net revenues were $3.2 billion, up 2.1% year-on-year
• GTV was $103.5 billion.
  • Existing home GTV was up 5.8% ($71 billion)
  • New home GTV was down 13.7% (27.6 billion)
• Net income was $105 million, down 36% year-on-year

Commenting on the results, Mr Stanley Yongdong Peng, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Beike, said:

“In the third quarter of 2025, we continued to explore ways to improve operational efficiency and enhance customer experience through organizational optimization, process restructuring, and technological innovation. In our home transaction services, we launched a pilot program in Shanghai featuring a ‘buyer-seller agent specialization’ mechanism, helping sell-side agents strengthen their capabilities in marketing and selling properties. In our home rental services, we are deeply integrating AI into our operations, with AI empowering the entire service providers’ workflows and customer experience. This business contributed over RMB100 million in profit in the third quarter of 2025.”

Mr Peng also said that the company would be accelerating its development and "deep integration" of Beike's AI capabilities for both customers and service providers.

As well as operating one of the country's most heavily trafficked discovery sites, KE Holdings (aka Beike) runs one of the biggest brokerages (Lianjia) and one of the world's largest virtual tour companies (Realsee) and a burgeoning renovations business.

In recent years, the company's results have been affected by the prolonged downturn in the Chinese housing market. As a result, Beike has increasingly looked to its renovations business and its new rentals business to bolster revenue.

While the revenue from home renovations was flat year-on-year in the third quarter, revenues from the company's rental business surged 45%. Beike attributed the uptick in rentals to its Carefree Rent model, which offers a full-lifecycle rental service, including property management, maintenance, and online tools for both owners and tenants.

While the costs associated with this model increased 38% year-on-year to $93 million, the company noted that both the rentals and furnishings businesses "achieved city-level profitability" and together delivered a record contribution to gross profit.