Beike's second-hand home transaction volume will hit a record high in 2025, and more transformative measures will be introduced in 2026.

On March 16, Shell announced its 2025 fourth-quarter and full-year financial results. In 2025, Shell recorded net revenues of RMB 94.6 billion, up 1% year over year; net profit was RMB 2.99 billion, and adjusted net profit was RMB 5.02 billion.

In 2025, in the housing transaction business, the company’s secondary-hand transaction volume increased 11% year over year, hitting a record high. The share of the “non-real-estate transaction business” rose to a record high of 41%. Revenue from the home improvement business also reached a record high of RMB 15.4 billion, while the leasing business achieved profitability for the first time. With AI deeply integrated and more refined operations, the number of secondary-hand transactions per broker per capita improved to more than 3 deals. The monthly average number of deals handled by professional project managers in the home improvement business increased by over 100% year over year. The number of properties under management per asset management manager increased by 40% or more, reaching record highs.

Record high transaction volume for secondhand homes on the platform

In 2025, Shell’s net revenues from its existing housing business were RMB 25.02 billion. The transaction volume for secondhand homes on the platform reached a record high, increasing 11% year over year. This data indicates that, against the backdrop of industry adjustments, the secondhand home market still maintains strong transaction activity. Real living demand and relocation/replacement demand continue to be released, and the market has resilience and vitality.

In 2025, the proportion of total transaction value (GTV) of existing homes generated by the platform excluding Lianjia further increased to approximately 63% of total existing-homes GTV. The number of secondhand home transactions excluding Lianjia on a year-over-year basis grew by 15%. The platform attribute was further strengthened, with stronger revenue stability under the platform model and a lighter asset model.

In 2025, Shell completed RMB 890.9 billion in transactions in the new home business, continuing to outperform the market. Net revenues from the home improvement and home furnishings business were RMB 15.4 billion, up 4.4%. The contribution profit margin rose to 31.4%, an increase of 0.7 percentage points year over year. Shell proactively controlled the pace of the home improvement and home furnishings business, focusing on building professional service capabilities that can be scaled and replicated. Through a modular product system, productized model showrooms, and BIM intelligent design tools, the company continued to improve designers’ human-resource effectiveness. Meanwhile, it carried out nationwide centralized procurement or local centralized procurement for approximately 80% of primary materials and approximately 60% of secondary materials, enhancing bargaining power and ensuring stable long-term product quality.

By the end of 2025, Shell’s housing rental services had more than 700,000 units of properties under management, up 62% year over year. Full-year net revenues were RMB 21.9 billion, up 52.8%. The contribution profit margin increased by 3.6 percentage points year over year to 8.6%, achieving profitability from an operating perspective.

Shell’s co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Peng Yongdong, said: “Shell will change the service logic—from the previous growth model driven by the scale of people and stores—to a growth model driven by efficiency and value creation, improving the platform’s overall resource conversion efficiency and unit output. Next, we will explore upgrading transaction services into full-process ‘decision’ services, enhancing the professionalism and certainty of consumer services. We will use AI technology to reshape capabilities, optimize resource allocation, and further amplify the professional value of service providers and platform efficiency. At the same time, we will build systematic service capabilities centered on the entire housing lifecycle.”

Shell’s Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer, Xu Tao, said: “In 2025, we advanced a series of efficiency-improvement initiatives, aiming to optimize the unit economics model and the Group’s cost structure, and enhance the company’s operating resilience for the future. The profit margin contributed by the new home business improved by 0.2 percentage points year over year in 2025, and the profit margin contributed by the existing homes business also rebounded quarter over quarter in the fourth quarter. The Group’s operating efficiency improved. In 2025, the ratio of operating expenses to net revenues decreased by 1.4 percentage points year over year. In 2026, we will maintain prudent financial discipline, continuously optimize the capital allocation structure, improve operating governance, and support steady, sustainable development of the business.”

More transformative initiatives will be rolled out in 2026

At the 2025 earnings call on March 16, Peng Yongdong laid out his latest strategic thinking for Shell’s future development. Combined with the signals released in Peng Yongdong’s internal letter, it can be anticipated that Shell will roll out more transformative initiatives in 2026.

Peng Yongdong said that the underlying logic of industry development in China’s residential housing market has already changed. The era in which growth was driven by the expansion of resources such as “people and stores” has ended. The industry is entering a new stage centered on efficiency, professional capabilities, and customer value. Shell will also iterate itself around consumers’ needs.

The core of the upgrade is that, based on data and AI, Shell will reform its service logic around customer value, using more value creation to improve the platform’s overall resource conversion efficiency and unit output. From the previous growth model driven by the scale of people and stores, it will shift to sustained growth driven by efficiency and value creation.

With the AI wave sweeping through, Peng Yongdong believes that AI is becoming the core production factor for upgrading the residential services industry. Real estate transactions are not standardized commodity transactions; they include both rational calculations and a large amount of emotional judgment. They require data support and also real offline experience.

Figure shows the Shell signing center. Provided by the company

“AI cannot be ignored, and people cannot be replaced.” Peng Yongdong introduced that AI can maximize rational aspects, while amplifying the value of emotional parts that must be handled by people. Shell has clearly chosen an “human-AI collaboration” AI strategy route. Based on AI capabilities, Shell is improving the professionalism of the services the platform provides overall and its resource conversion efficiency, strengthening its ability to generate unit output.

For brokers, in the real estate transaction business, Shell has built an “AI studio” system. For example, AIGC automatically generates marketing content and takes over initial interactions. An AI CRM provides customer insights and strategy recommendations. AI training tools capture the experience of top performers (“sales champions”), narrowing capability differences. In broker services, brokers previously had to spend a large amount of time organizing property information and answering repetitive inquiries. Now, with AI, the company can automatically generate VR video explanations, property interpretations, and customer communication materials, allowing more time to focus on understanding customer needs and driving transaction decisions. Specifically in terms of productivity, in 2025, among brokers at non-Lianjia agencies, the average number of secondary-hand deals per broker increased by 6% year over year, rising from less than 2 deals in 2022 to more than 3 deals.

In the leasing business, Shell has already run through a closed-loop where “AI participates in core strategy.” AI participates in, or is responsible for, listing pricing, inventory scheduling, and regional resource allocation. In pilot regions, efficiency of manpower for property collection increased by 13%. The leasing success rate with AI pricing improved by 5.3 percentage points compared with human pricing. In 2025, the average number of units under management per month for asset management managers exceeded 120, up 40%.

In the real estate transaction business, Shell’s goal is to upgrade transaction services into full-process “decision” services, encapsulating complex transactions into “homing/staying-in-place service products” and improving the professionalism and certainty of services.