Real Estate Brokerage KE’s Profit Balloons Despite Falling Revenue

Chinese real estate brokerage KE Holdings Inc. reported a 79% year-on-year jump in first-half net profit despite falling revenue, driven by aggressive cost-cutting and a strategic shift toward boosting agent efficiency in a sluggish property market.

The financial results underscore how China’s dominant housing broker is adapting to a fundamentally changed property sector, where growth now relies on squeezing higher margins from its existing workforce rather than relentlessly expanding its physical footprint.