Tencent’s housing broker Beike is in regulators’ cross hairs as China’s antitrust investigations pick up pace, Reuters reports
- SAMR has been formally investigating in recent weeks whether KE Holdings, also known as Beike, forces real estate developers to list housing information only on its platforms, Reuters reported
- The report is “fake news,” Beike said on its WeChat social media account, without elaborating. Company spokespeople referred media inquiries to its WeChat statement
The investigation is the latest into China’s big so-called “platform” companies that match sellers and buyers, several of which have been accused by regulators of exploiting consumers.
The investigation has not been publicly announced. It is not known when it will wrapped up or what it could entail for KE Holdings.
KE Holdings declined to comment. SAMR didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
SAMR has stationed inspectors since late April in 17 companies that operate platforms, including KE Holdings, to enhance the efficiency of antitrust inspections, one of the sources said.
KE Holdings, which also counts SoftBank Group among its major backers, launched Lianjia, formerly known as Beijing Homelink Real Estate Brokerage, 20 years ago.
It grew into one of China’s largest bricks-and-mortar property agents and later set up Beike as a separate online housing platform matching buyers and sellers, renters and landlords, as well as providing home finance.
It listed in New York in August, and after sharp gains last year the shares are down 15 per cent so far in 2021. Still, it has a market value of about US$62 billion.
Its biggest revenue sources are from existing home and new home transactions, with market shares of 26 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively, of gross transaction volume in 2020, according to TF Securities, a relatively high proportion in China’s fragmented housing market.
KE Holdings posted stellar first quarter financial results last week, with net revenue up 191 per cent on the year, bolstered by China’s robust property market that quickly rebounded last year from the coronavirus crisis.