KE has new moves again

Author | Zheng Qiao

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

In the search for new industry development models, KE continues to take action.

Wall Street News has learned that KE recently made personnel adjustments to the "One Body Three Wings" structure, appointing two key figures to lead the outstanding performance of the past year in the renovation and home furnishing business lines.

Specifically, Xu Wangang has been appointed as the CEO of the renovation business line, responsible for the overall management of the renovation business line; while Wang Yongqun has become the CEO of the home furnishing business line, in charge of the overall operation of the home furnishing business line. They will report directly to KE Group's Chairman and CEO, Peng Yongdong.

Sources from KE revealed to Wall Street News that this adjustment aims to strengthen the leadership at the small group committee level of the renovation and home furnishing business lines, further emphasizing the synergy between the "One Body Three Wings" businesses.

Xu Wangang and Wang Yongqun are both important executives at KE, playing key roles in the business structure adjustments at KE. This appointment also marks the first establishment of centralized executives for the renovation and home furnishing business lines, changing the previous multi-person co-management model.

Insiders at KE stated that with Xu Wangang and Wang Yongqun fully responsible for the operational management of specific business lines, the decision-making efficiency of the renovation and home furnishing business lines can be further improved, and the synergy between different business lines will be stronger.

Facing a decline in revenue from real estate transaction services, KE Group is shifting its focus to new business areas such as home decoration, leasing, and residential development to find new growth drivers.

KE Group announced the "One Body Three Wings" strategy in July last year, followed by organizational structure upgrades. In this strategy, "One Body" represents the core brokerage business, while "Three Wings" includes the renovation, home furnishing, and KE Home business segments.

Over the past year, the renovation and home furnishing businesses have also achieved significant results.

According to the latest financial report data for the first half of 2024, KE's net revenue from housing leasing services increased by 176.7% year-on-year to 5.8 billion RMB.

Wang Yongqun has rich experience in the home furnishing business line. He emphasized the importance of the "Big Leasing" concept, which covers KE's ordinary leasing, worry-free leasing, and the upstream and downstream supply chain of leasing services. Under his leadership, KE has continuously strengthened its layout in the leasing business.

In terms of home decoration and furnishing business, KE's total transaction volume reached 7.6 billion RMB this year, a 24% year-on-year growth, becoming the only business segment to achieve transaction volume growth in the first half of the year.

As first and second-tier cities gradually transition to the era of existing housing, the home decoration industry is facing new customer acquisition opportunities. The expansion of the existing housing market, especially the demand for renovation of second-hand houses and old communities, is becoming a new growth engine for the home decoration industry.

Research data shows that among consumers with renovation needs in 2023, the proportion of second-hand house renovations is significant, with over 75% in first-tier cities, and over 56% and 60% in new first-tier cities and second-tier cities, respectively.

According to KE's performance report, as of the six months ended June 30, 2024, the total transaction volume of existing housing transactions was 1.0238 trillion RMB, a decrease of 8.7% compared to the same period in 2023; the total transaction volume of new housing transactions was 387.1 billion RMB, a decrease of 32.4% compared to the same period in 2023 This makes it particularly important for KE Holdings to find growth points after the real estate market enters the stock market.

In recent years, in order to promote the development of the rental housing market, governments in many places have successively introduced policies to vigorously promote the development of the rental housing market through measures such as land supply, financial support, and financial and tax incentives.

Guotai Junan also pointed out that as the real estate market enters the stock era, the home decoration industry still has great growth potential in terms of both total volume and structure. In the stock market, there is still a lot of room for the release of demand for renovation and refurbishment. It is expected that by 2025, the scale of the entire industry will reach 5 trillion yuan.

In this new era full of challenges and opportunities, those who can insight into the market pulse first will seize the initiative in the fierce competition.

And KE Holdings is at a crossroads of transformation, where every step is crucial