A 40-year-old housing agent was arrested for suspected involvement in unlicensed money lending targeting Housing and Devlopement Board (HDB) flat sellers, said the police in a news release on Wednesday (Apr 1). Police said officers from the Tanglin Police Division acted after receiving information, and and conducted investigations against a housing agent who was allegedly involved in unlicensed money...
Agents
Faced with a sluggish property market, fewer people are getting themselves licensed as real estate agents and more are leaving the industry, according to figures from the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA). As at Jan 1, there were 30,830 real estate salespersons, or agents, down from 31,783 the year before. Of the total, 3,006 were new entrants to the industry, down from 3,336 in the previous...
A property agent has been sentenced to 12 months in prison for stealing rental money from his Indonesian client and forging his signature to collect the misappropriated funds. Fong Wai Loon, 37, was found guilty by the State Courts on Tuesday (Dec 16) of forgery for the purpose of cheating and criminal breach of trust, which carries a maximum prison term of 10 years and seven years, respectively. In...
The educational qualifications of the average real estate and insurance agent has increased in the past 10 years, Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin noted in written responses to questions in Parliament on Tuesday (Oct 7). As of 2013, about two in three property agents had attained at least a diploma - up from two in five in 2003. In the insurance sector, about four in five agents had attained a diploma or...
Teho International is moving deeper into the property sector. It announced on Thursday (Sep 25) that it had signed a non-binding letter of intent, to buy over ECG Group, a property development company, for S$17 million. Teho is a holding company mainly specialising in marine, offshore oil and gas. The proposed acquisition will allow Teho to expand its operations in the local and overseas property...
To prevent their agents from running afoul of Do Not Call (DNC) Registry rules that came into effect on Jan 2 this year, real estate agencies here have put in place training sessions, policies and hardware solutions to help them understand the rules under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). The Act, which came into full force on July 2, bars firms from marketing to phone numbers listed in the DNC...
A property agent with Huttons Asia will be charged with breaching the Do Not Call (DNC) requirements under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). In a news release issued on Monday (Sep 22), the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) said it had received complaints of unsolicited telemarketing messages allegedly sent by the property agent advertising various residential developments in Singapore....
A HDB flat was repossessed and an unlicensed agent fined S$16,000 for an illegal real estate transaction that took place in 2012. Jordan Goh Swee Thye, a 48-year-old Singaporean, will face six weeks' imprisonment if he defaults on paying the fine after he was convicted and sentenced in court on Sep 10, the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) said in a media release on Monday (Sep 15). CEA...
International real estate services firm JLL has bought a 20 per cent stake in home-grown PropNex International in a bid to grow its Singapore residential property business. PropNex International - the project marketing arm of PropNex - specialises in marketing new property developments. Its current projects include City Gate at Beach Road, Commonwealth Towers at Alexandra and Thomson Grand. JLL had...
The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) earlier this week issued new guidelines for property agents and salespersons marketing foreign properties. Industry players generally welcome the move, but some said the guidelines could pose challenges. In the last couple of years, more Singaporeans have been buying properties overseas, in countries such as Malaysia and the United Kingdom. To help consumers...