Chinese Property Industry Disruptor Beike Files For $2B US IPO

Chinese property industry disruptor KE Holdings Inc. has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States that could notch approximately $2 billion of funding for the company, which is alternatively referred to as Beike Zhaofang and is supported by Tencent Holdings Ltd., Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.

One of the largest real estate firms in the country, Beijing Homelink Real Estate Brokerage Co., rolled out Beike two calendar years ago as a digital property brokerage technology. Beike notched an approximately $800 million Tencent investment in a 2019 round.

The company reportedly filed on Friday (July 24) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and wrote in a dollar figure of $1 billion, which could be modified. A $2 billion listing would reportedly make the float the biggest American IPO for a Chinese company in over two years.

Real estate is in need of a refresh to align homebuying with the current times. The digital platform HomeLight has differentiated itself from other companies with a technology that harnesses platform dynamics to foster enhanced connections between sellers-homebuyer and agents.

Drew Uher, the chief executive of the company, recently spoke with PYMNTS about his firm’s digital real estate platform, its functionality to connect consumers and real estate agents, and how new processes are sensitive to post-COVID-19 fears.

In April, HomeLight unveiled its Move Safe Certification effort. The initiative brings new capabilities to its agent matching offering, and certifies agents per their ability to meet with customers via the web, make sure listings are clean, harness eSignatures for paperwork and limit showings to serious purchasers.

As Uher said in a past PYMNTS interview, “We’re certifying our agent base to make sure they’re using best practices and then communicating that with clients.”

In other real estate news, after three consecutive months of declines, sales of single-family homes, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops improved by nearly 21 percent in June to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 4.72 million.