Beike and the digitization of China’s real estate marke
China’s property woes got worse last month. Prices fell in new and resale properties amid deeper contractions and investment by developers. This added pressure to the sector in a rare convergence of declines.
Beike a game changer for property business?
The company is currently developing virtual reality and enhanced reality features for its property platform.
At last week’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, executives from Beijing-based property platform Beike explained the potential for artificial intelligence to impact the real estate industry.
AI has enabled more homes to be equipped with intelligent appliances and voice assistants, but the machine learning and big data analytics that have been applied to property buying and rental can also make it easier. Ye Jieping, chief scientist at Beike, said that real estate agents can create standardized databases so prospective customers can easily scout potential locations from the comfort of their homes.
visualize the place is an important part of the real-estate industry. AI can enable spatial analysis software to build digital environments that are precisely scaled and have proper dimensions, stated Hui Xinchen (Vice President at Beike).
Beike is optimistic about the potential digitization of China’s real estate market.
According to Beike, China’s residential market for real estate is the most developed in the world. It has a total of 34 billion square meters of urban housing and 300 million units. This number rivals that of Japan, the US, and the UK. However, the digital adoption rate in the industry is still low. Only 20% of residential service providers have created spatial databases to allow properties to be displayed on their platforms. It is time-consuming and difficult to gather the necessary data for creating immersive virtual spaces.
VR and AR applications offer great potential for the future of the industry, but there are many obstacles, such as long feedback cycles, and a weak data infrastructure. Ye stated that AI should not be used blindly. Beike believes that the market will grow if it is focused on its customers, properties and technologies.
Sunac’s sale-off comes at a difficult time for Beike. After going public in a $2.1billion IPO in August 2020, the company’s market capitalization has risen to almost $40 billion, its NYSE-listed shares are down about 65 percent.
This Beijing-based property portal lists listings for new and used homes available for rent or sale in China. Beike backed Tencent, an internet company from Japan, and SoftBank. However, this year’s government crackdown on tech-enabled markets saw Beike lose its support.
Just one week after Zuo Hui , founder and chairman, died unannounced, regulators launched an investigation into Beike’s anti-competitive practices. They also allege consumer exploitation. Reuters reported.
Hong Kong listing
Reuters reported in September that Beike was planning a Hong Kong listing. The company even hired Goldman Sachs as a float leader, but denied any “imminent plans” for an HKEX listing.
Didi, a ride-sharing company, is another name in the tech dragnet. Didi just announced plans to remove itself from the NYSE in order to re-list on Hong Kong’s exchange. Its shares have fallen nearly 50% since June’s trading began.
Beike is a great startup in China, a super popular one for Chinese investors, explained a specialist in the Chinese business club event.
Four-year Journey for Beike
After rising to over $76 per share in the first quarter, Beike’s stock now trades at just above its IPO Price of $20 at $22.15 per Share, with its market cap reducing to $26.4 billion. Sunac stated in the filing that the stock had “good investment returns” despite not being able to sell it in the online brokerage’s peak in February.
China’s Beike Exploring Hong Kong Listing
KE Holdings, China’s largest housing broker, has hired Goldman Sachs as a float leader. Two people with direct knowledge of this matter told Reuters.
Tencent Holdings and SoftBank Group backed Beijing-based KE. It raised $2.1 billion during its New York IPO in 2013. This made it the second largest US listing for a Chinese company.
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