THE Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) yesterday said it has misplaced 125 application forms due to an administrative oversight.

It is working with these estate agents to get them registered as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the agents have been issued provisional registrations and are allowed to practise.

The CEA also said that ‘as a gesture of goodwill’, 813 of 1,736 property agents whose applications are pending approval can act provisionally till the end of this month.

These agents either submitted their application forms after the Nov 30, 2010 deadline, or did not have their forms in order.

Another 923 agents’ applications are pending approval, but this group will not get the grace period. These are people who either did not declare criminal convictions or who gave inaccurate information on their bankruptcy status. They can re-apply or appeal to be registered.

The government agency acknowledged problems such as missing forms and registration delays, and apologised for the inconvenience caused.

The CEA was set up in October last year to police real estate agents and agencies following long-running complaints about unethical practices. It has a staff of 33 and started operations on Jan 1.

Addressing recent news reports that it was unable to cope with the workload, Ms Purnima Shantilal, CEA’s director of licensing and investigations, said a large part of the bottleneck stems from agents going to the office themselves, rather than letting their agencies handle the applications.

A total of 1,401 estate agencies have applied for registration as of Jan 7. Of these, 1,288, or 92 per cent, were approved.

Three were rejected and 48 had incomplete applications. The applications of 62 agencies are pending approval because they were submitted late.

As for individual agents, CEA received 31,288 applications, of which 28,766, or 92 per cent, were approved.

A total of 786 people were rejected for various reasons. Most had not taken CEA-endorsed exams or completed at least three property transactions over the last two years.

The rest did not meet CEA’s ‘fit and proper’ criteria. They include people with serious criminal convictions, including fraud and dishonesty, ‘in the recent past’.

CEA clarified that it considers applications from people with previous criminal convictions carefully and on a case-by-case basis.

It added that undischarged bankrupts are not automatically disqualified. Again, applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis and it has accepted the registration of undischarged bankrupts with the relevant supporting documents.

While estate agents and agency bosses were relieved that there is some reprieve for those who have not been registered, they wondered why there are still delays.

Mr Jimmy Ng, director of Premiere Realty, said his company had not been placed on CEA’s public register last week.

‘After chasing CEA and going down to their offices a few times, my company finally appeared on the website on Sunday,’ he said. ‘But the delay has caused some of my 30 agents to not be able to clinch their deals.’

Ms Janice Chan, director of Asia Breeze housing agency, said: ‘There is always a long waiting time for its hotline, and some of the staff do not seem adequately briefed.’

Others were more sympathetic, and attributed the problems to teething issues. Dennis Wee Group director Chris Koh said the one-month extension should help clear the backlog.

Mr Eugene Lim, associate director at ERA Asia Pacific, the firm with the biggest number of registered agents, said it bodes well for the industry that CEA has acknowledged that it has problems and is working quickly to resolve them.

Source: STraits Times, 10 Jan 2011

Long queues at its HDB Hub office to settle licence queries, disputes

THE new statutory board in charge of regulating and licensing property agents here had a rough first day of business yesterday.

The Toa Payoh premises of the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) was thronged with people, mainly disgruntled property agents or their bosses, who had shown up to ask about licences that had yet to be issued or sort out property transaction disputes.

The machine issuing queue numbers was working overtime, and several people saw a few hours go up in smoke as they waited in line.

About 30 people were still there when The Straits Times dropped in at 5pm.

Premiere Realty chief executive Jimmy Ng was there to find out why his 30 agents, approved as practising agents last year, had yet to receive their licences.

After trying unsuccessfully to call the CEA’s hotline for two hours, he turned up at its offices in HDB Hub at 11am.

He ended up spending the afternoon there, with his number finally called four hours later – only for him to be told that more waiting was in store: It would take another three days for the CEA to process the licences.

Sounding irritated, he said: ‘I’m running a business. I have five cases on hand right now that I can’t work on because we can’t do anything until we get our licences.

‘Making us wait this long is just ridiculous. Our clients will be very unhappy with us,’ he complained.

The CEA, set up last year following long-running complaints about a lack of professionalism and unethical practices among property agents, required Singapore’s 32,800 existing property agents to register with it.

About 27,800 did so, and after the CEA had them sit and pass examinations or show they had brokered at least three deals in the past two years, it entered their names into a public online database.

Among the regulations the CEA started enforcing at the start of the new year is one that requires all agents to be licensed in order to carry out property transactions.

At what was supposed to have been the close of the business day yesterday, some people were seen dozing on the couches in the CEA’s reception area, while others stood glumly in the lift lobby comparing queue numbers.

Two counters in the reception area, a makeshift one outside and some offices at the back of the premises were handling the visitors’ queries.

HSR Property Group agent Sharon Chong, 39, who waited more than three hours for advice on a transaction dispute, said: ‘The wait is agonising, but there’s clearly a bottleneck, because they don’t have enough people to handle our queries.

‘I’m tired of waiting, but my case is urgent and I need the answer today.’

The CEA, responding to questions from The Straits Times, said it put six customer service officers and a manager on duty yesterday to handle queries on licences or accept re-submitted applications that were previously incomplete.

About 200 people showed up based on queue numbers, it said.

Said its spokesman: ‘We have placed a priority on handling licensing and registration queries, and are beefing up counter service to register those who walk in as soon as possible if they are eventually found to be eligible.’

She added that there were no plans to open more counters in the office.

Source: Straits Times, 4 Jan 2011

Entrepreneur puts his cash into improving his business or buying property
Mr Ken Lim, a salesman-turned-entrepreneur, has witnessed many ups and downs in his life. But nothing prepared the chairman of property firm RE/MAX Singapore for the overwhelming response of real estate agents who came knocking on his door to be his franchisees in recent months.

In 2002, he had bought a one-office franchisee licence from United States-based RE/MAX for $25,000. The latter provides administrative support to real estate firms.

In January 2009, he bought the master franchisor licence for $300,000. The timing was right. In an effort to raise the standards of the real estate industry, property agencies are now required by the Government to have proper operating systems.

As a result, RE/MAX saw a jump in its number of franchisee/associate firms to 23 now, from just four before June last year.

‘Many small agencies here do not have a proper operating system. I have a business centre in Toa Payoh that handles software, administrative and compliance matters for my franchisee/ associate companies. All this will relieve them of their administrative work,’ he said.

Mr Lim, 59, started out as a successful door-to-door salesman selling Electrolux vacuum cleaners after his national service. When he left Swedish firm Electrolux, he was its regional sales director for South-east Asia.

He set up his trading firm Fait International in 1986 which, however, closed down in 1998 during the financial crisis. He attributed the failure to an overexpansion of the business into the region.

Nursing a huge financial loss of more than $1 million, he ventured into real estate. He set up Maxi

Real Estate with about $20,000 in 1999 and was making about $300,000 from his sales commissions a year later.

In 2001, the firm was renamed The Real Centre.

It was a year later that he bought the one-office RE/MAX franchisee licence.

Mr Lim is married to Ms Aileen Ang, 58, who is the financial controller at The Real Centre, and they have two daughters, Eunice, 37 and Hoonie, 34, and six grandchildren. His elder daughter heads the training arm Real Centre Network while her husband Thomas Tan, 37, heads RE/MAX The Real Centre Property. The former is one of two course providers for the new Real Estate Salesperson course administered by regulatory body, the Council for Estate Agencies.

Q: Are you a spender or saver?

I’m more of a spender but my expenditure is mostly on my family on dinners and holidays. Money is not yours until you use it. Since I tend to be a spender, whenever I have extra cash, I will either invest in improving my business or in a small industrial/commercial property. When I need more cash for my business or for other investment opportunities, I work harder and close more deals.

Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month?

I hardly use my two credit cards as Aileen, my wife, handles most of my finances. I probably spend $2,000 or less a month.

Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?

After the ups and downs in my career, I am now very cautious in my investments. Besides having cash set aside for emergency and investment opportunities, I have less than $100,000 invested in blue chips like OCBC. My insurance life cover is about $1 million.

The bulk of my investments is in my business The Real Centre as I prefer to focus on investing in what I know best. So far, I have invested over $1 million in my RE/MAX master franchisor business. And I plan to build a legacy, to create a unique business model that will outlast me. The master regional franchisor licence is for 40 years. The royalty fees from the franchisees and my existing property investments should give me reasonable passive income.

Q: Moneywise, what were your growing up years like?

I am the eldest child in a family of five. My father was very authoritarian and was the disciplinarian in the family. He was a school principal from Fujian while my mother was a school teacher. My father used to say: ‘You don’t work, you don’t eat.’

He laid down the rule that when I started working, half of my income had to go to the family, that is, to the parents who raised me. Until 15 years ago when my father died from a stroke, I used to give my parents half of my pay every month, even after I got married.

When I was growing up, we lived in an attap house in a school compound in Jalan Hock Chye near Tampines.

Q: How did you get interested in investing?

I’m in the property line so it is only natural that I believe in the benefits of property investments, especially in industrial properties for their high rental yields.

Every now and then when I have spare cash of, say, $100,000, I will use it as down payment for a unit.

Q: What property do you own?

I previously owned and rented out two three-bedroom condos in the Upper Serangoon area. They were bought in 2004 and 2005 for $503,000 and $560,000, and sold for $680,000 and $700,000, respectively, in 2008 and 2009. Now I own a four-room HDB flat in Lorong Lew Lian and seven industrial properties.

I bought the HDB flat in 2004 for about $200,000 and am renting it out at $2,000 a month. The current value of the flat is about $440,000. From 2004 till last year, I bought seven industrial properties at Wintech Centre at Upper Paya Lebar. They range from about 800 sq ft to 2,000 sq ft. My average purchase price was around $220 psf and the estimated current psf is $330. The average annual rental yield is 9 per cent.

Q: What is the most extravagant thing you have bought?

I guess it was our family holiday three years ago. Twelve of us, including my two daughters, sons-in-law, and six grandchildren, went on a trip to the United States. It cost me almost $40,000. It was really worthwhile considering the fun and joy we had.

Q: What is your retirement plan?

I am sure I will not retire as doing business is my hobby. I think retirement will be very boring and I may end up feeling unwanted and unproductive.

I aspire to be like Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, who is still very active and so passionate in what he does even though he is in his late 80s.

Q: Home is now…

A rented two-storey 2,200 sq ft semi-detached house at Yio Chu Kang for $3,300 a month. The land size is 3,000 sq ft.

Q: I drive …

I drive a black six-seater R350 Mercedes. It’s convenient to pick up my grandchildren.

lorna@sph.com.sg

Filial piety

My father used to say: ‘You don’t work, you don’t eat.’ He laid down the rule that when I started working, half of my income had to go to the family, that is, to the parents who raised me. Until 15 years ago when my father died from a stroke, I used to give my parents half of my pay every month, even after I got married.

MR KEN LIM, salesman-turned-entrepreneur

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WORST AND BEST BETS

Q: What has been your worst investment to date?

I lost $300,000 in Malaysian Clob shares when Malaysia unexpectedly banned trading of its shares on Singapore’s Clob International in 1998.

Q: And your best investment?

My best investment is definitely buying and investing in the RE/MAX master franchisor business.

The investment began to pay off recently.

From a humble set-up of just four franchisee/associate companies, it has grown to include 23 franchisee/associate companies throughout Singapore which are handling many aspects of real estate business, from residential, commercial to industrial.

I see exponential growth in this business. We expect to grow to 50 franchisee/associate companies by this year.

Our target is to achieve $50 million in revenue this year from the current $15 million.

Source: Sunday Times, 2 Jan 2011

Nod for 1,190 property firms, 27,754 agents; public register on CEA website from Jan 1
THE newly set up Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) has approved 1,190 licence applications from real estate firms as well as 27,754 registration applications for property agents, it said yesterday.

Previous estimates from the government – provided before CEA was set up – put the number of property firms and agents at 1,700 and 30,000 respectively. But industry players were expecting the number of firms and agents to fall with the establishment of the industry watchdog and stricter rules.

CEA also said that it turned down 210 applicants who do not meet the required criteria to be agents. The denied would- be agents were mainly found to have criminal records or records of offences involving fraud or dishonesty.

A public register of licensed firms and registered agents will be available on CEA’s website from Jan 1. The register will display the name, licence or registration number, the firm the agent is working for, validity period, and records of offences committed or disciplinary actions taken, if any. Recent photographs of agents will also be available for easy identification from March 1.

CEA has been receiving licensing applications from both new and existing real estate firms since Nov 1. Property firms were also required to register salespersons who meet all of CEA’s criteria by Nov 30.

Going forward, CEA will also implement a prescribed dispute resolution scheme – involving mediation and arbitration – in January. Firms are required to participate in the scheme once the consumer has elected to proceed.

The agency also clarified yesterday that estate agency work concerning land banking products will not be regulated under the Estate Agents Act 2010.

Said CEA: ‘This is because estate agents marketing land banking products are more likely to provide financial investment advice than to make representations on a property. Consumers should practice caution and exercise due diligence when investing in land banking products.’

Source: Business Times, 30 Dec 2010

Only licensed agents can work by Jan 1, in bid to up standards

COME Jan 1, Singapore’s real estate industry will mark not just a new year but a new dawn. Only licensed agents will be allowed to work, in a nationwide bid to raise the industry’s professionalism.

The industry will for the first time be regulated by the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), which has been given powers to discipline agents in a sector often called a ‘cowboy town’.

But it has got its work cut out for it.

Barely two months since it began operations on Oct 22, it has already received 228 complaints as of last Friday. This works out to 114 complaints a month – higher than the average 90 complaints a month filed with the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) last year. Almost half – 47 per cent – concerned unprofessional or poor service, a big bugbear in the industry.

Speaking to the media for the first time since he was appointed CEA’s executive director, Mr Chionh Chye Khye told The Straits Times the new body’s core mission will be to raise standards.

To do this, CEA will deploy a three-pronged strategy, he revealed. The first is effective regulation. It is a balancing act for CEA, which ‘should not overregulate or be too lax in regulation’, he explained.

For example, agencies have said they fear CEA could overregulate by imposing stifling restrictions or making eligibility criteria for agents too stringent. ‘Regulation must be for better outcomes, and hence, effective regulation is key,’ Mr Chionh said.

Second, CEA aims to actively work with estate agencies as it cannot raise the industry’s standards alone. ‘(The agencies) are at the front line and can sense consumer needs and changes in trends,’ he said. Lastly, education of home buyers and sellers will be a key strategy as they come from a wide spectrum, from the less educated to the highly educated. ‘If consumers do not understand, they make errors of judgment or bad decisions and can be misled by rogue salesmen,’ he added.

CEA’s 33-strong staff will also have to deal with other complaints such as disputes over fees paid to agents, which make up 12 per cent of complaints. CEA will look into each case and will investigate if the agent is in the wrong.

As of Jan 1, it will hand out licences to agents who make the cut, and will have the power to mete out penalties such as warnings, fines and suspensions and even revoke licences. Its service will be free for consumers, said Mr Chionh.

CEA collects a registration fee from each licensed agent and estate agency.

Consumers with complaints will have to pay a mediation fee if they choose to use CEA’s dispute resolution scheme. Details on how this scheme works and the size of the fee will be released at a later date, he said.

Mr Chionh added that CEA’s inquiries, complaints and appeals come via its hotline, website, e-mail messages and walk-in public counter in Toa Payoh’s HDB Hub. It has been looking into ‘fine-tuning’ its processes.

Case executive director Seah Seng Choon told The Straits Times he was not surprised at the high number of complaints. He said given that the regulation is new and that there is greater awareness of a proper channel for consumers, ‘this number will continue to grow and might escalate before it comes down’.

He is positive, however, that the new regime will improve the professionalism of the industry in the long run. ‘Now agents are registered, they will think twice before doing something unprofessional,’ he said.

The new rules will also make it unlikely that property agents will moonlight. There are no specific records of the number of people who have a day job but work as agents in their spare time and on weekends. But, PropNex spokesman Adam Tan said, with the new rules, such agents will be unable to continue as they must be registered in a database available to the public.

Another group affected are those who have problems reading and writing in English and are unable to pass recognised industry examinations conducted in English.

Ms C.H. Lee, 40, is one such agent. She has sold some 100 properties in recent years, but only has N-level qualifications. ‘My English is poor. Property is the only thing which I can do well now so I feel uncertain about my family’s future,’ she said.

Meanwhile, the new regime has brought cheer to consumers. Home buyer Madam L.H. Goh, 51, a personal assistant, engaged an agent who failed to declare that the flat seller’s agent was his wife.

‘There was a conflict of interest and he misled me right from the start, so I’m glad CEA is able to look into this and has the power to punish unpro-fessional agents,’ she said.

Mr Chionh added that generally, agency heads and agents themselves welcomed the greater regulation. This will enable them to ‘weed out the few bad hats and upgrade the image and professional standards of the industry’, he said.

Mr Chionh is a professional civil engineer and previously held the positions of deputy secretary at the Ministry of National Development and chief executive of the Building and Construction Authority.

CEA’s vision is of a professional and trusted real estate industry, he said, adding: ”Professional’ relates to the pursuit of standards in upgrading the industry, while ‘trusted’ refers to the trust that the consumers must have in the industry.’

Source: Straits Times, 23 Dec 2010

Source: Straits Times, 23 Dec 2010

ONE applicant was once jailed for seven years for having sex with a child. Others had histories of drug trafficking, illegal money-lending, stealing and fraud-related offences.

Of the estimated 32,800 existing property agents who applied for registration with the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) earlier this year, about 27,800 passed muster.

So far, CEA said it has rejected 210 applicants based on their past convictions or involvement in court cases, while others might have dropped out because of tightening regulations.

From Saturday, all new and existing agents have to be registered. It is part of the Government’s first foray into regulating and disciplining agents in the real estate industry – the sixth most-complained-about sector last year.

Those who made the cut will have their details displayed for the public on CEA’s website. Only these agents are allowed to work. The council has the authority to fine, suspend or revoke the licences of those who break the rules.

The public register will display the agent’s name, licence number and a recent photo. It will also show information on the 1,190 estate agency businesses.

Agents who have passed a recognised industry exam, such as the Common Examination for House Agents, have had their registrations approved.

CEA will also register those who have done at least three property deals over the last two years. But these agents will be granted only a one-year provisional licence and need to pass the Real Estate Salesperson (RES) exam by Dec 31 next year if they want to continue practising.

CEA is also launching a dispute resolution scheme next month.

This process aims to provide a means of resolving issues such as contractual disputes between consumers and agents. The agent involved will be compelled to participate in it.

Barely two months after it started operating, CEA has already received 228 complaints – about 114 a month.

Real estate agents and home buyers interviewed by The Straits Times welcomed the tightening of regulations.

Prospective home buyer Vanessa Chew, 26, said: ‘Many of us, either rightly or wrongly, look to real estate agents for guidance and information. The new regulations will hopefully ensure that real estate agents are in a better position to assist us and minimise any potential conflicts of interests.’

Dennis Wee Group (DWG) director Chris Koh said a ‘substantial’ number of agents still made the cut. He said measures like the standardisation of buyer and seller agreements will help improve the industry. Almost all the 2,400 agents DWG submitted to CEA qualified.

Mr Koh added: ‘The public registry will boost consumer confidence… buyers will know they are working with bona fide personnel.’

PropNex also had most of its 4,000 agents qualify. But spokesman Adam Tan said Singapore’s total number of CEA-registered agents is likely to drop, in part because of the difficulty agents possessing provisional licences might have with passing the required exams.

About 6,000 property agents have a one-year provisional licence.

Mr Tan added: ‘People who want to join the real estate industry now will have to be serious about it as a career.’

CEA said property developers and estate agents marketing land banking products are not affected by the new rules.

Source: Straits Times, 30 Dec 2010

SINGAPORE: The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) received 151 complaints in just the first month of operations.

Established on October 22, the new statutory board regulates the real estate industry and can take action against errant housing agents and agencies.

On average, the council received six complaints daily between October 22 and November 28.

Some were over misleading information on advertisements and allegations of fraud and moneylending.

There were even nine complaints from housing agents against other agents.

About half of the complaints were due to unprofessional or poor service provided by estate firms or salespersons. These include being uncontactable or late for appointments.

The council said the more serious complaints will be referred to its disciplinary committee. The public can also choose to go to consumer watchdog CASE or a mediation centre.

In an interview with Channel NewsAsia, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said he was not surprised by the number of complaints.

“Since this is the first time we are regulating in a formal way, I would expect a lot of “pent-up demand” for such an avenue for them to vent their complaints.

“I would say that the number of complaints when you first start will be high but I would expect this to taper off over time.”

He added that the council is currently sorting through the backlog of cases to determine which complaints are genuine and which can be dismissed. Some cases may need to be settled through mediation or arbitration.

Mr Mah said the main priority for the moment is to get the register of estate agents and salespersons up and running.

“The sense is that most will qualify, but there may be a small group who may not qualify. So I think they are now working through that. The real stumbling block may well be their past records, some of their recent records. So if they have various criminal records, or disciplinary records, that is the thing that may disqualify them from being a real estate agent.”

Mr Mah did not give figures on just how many housing agents have criminal records.

The council received 32,800 names as of October 22.

Property firm ERA said it submitted 4,800, of which, a hundred do not fulfil the “fit and proper” criteria as they are either undischarged bankrupts or have criminal records.

Eugene Lim, Associate Director, ERA Asia Pacific, said: “We have one salesperson, he’s currently about 40 years old, and when he was much younger, in his teens, he was involved in some fighting. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time. So because of that, there was a charge against him. But in this recent exercise, any person with any past record have to declare.”

Mr Lim said those agents who are undischarged bankrupts suffered business failures. He noted that they are good salespersons and have not given the agency any trouble. Mr Lim said that should their application be turned down, ERA would appeal on their behalf.

The council said appeals will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

Source: Channel News Asia, 7 Dec 2010

Firm can withdraw more to cover salary and CPF payments, says judge

EMBATTLED investment firm Profitable Plots, currently being investigated by the police, was given the green light by the High Court yesterday to withdraw more funds from its bank accounts to pay former employees.

The ruling follows a previous decision by Justice Lee Seiu Kin on Nov 9 to partially unfreeze the firm’s bank accounts, which were seized by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) earlier this year as part of its ongoing probe.

Lawyer Wendell Wong of Drew & Napier, representing Profitable Plots, said his client realised that salaries and Central Provident Fund contributions owed to its staff had exceeded the amounts ordered to be released by the court.

‘On Nov 25, the company wrote in to the High Court to request for the release of more funds from the seized accounts to pay their ex-employees,’ said Mr Wong in an e-mail to The Straits Times.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) applied to block the move on Nov 29, pending a decision by the public prosecutor to file ‘questions of law of public interest’.

But yesterday, Justice Lee allowed Profitable Plots to withdraw more funds.

One factor noted by Justice Lee was that it was coming to the end of the year and the former employees have been owed their salaries and CPF monies since August. Another factor was that the AGC has yet to decide whether to file questions of law of public interest.

The exact amount of funds to be released, however, will still be subject to the consent of the CAD. But Mr Wong estimates the figure could be about $130,400 – up from the $120,000 previously allowed – and that it will be used to pay salaries owed only to former employees, but not directors.

In addition, the firm is permitted to take out as much as $87,483 – up from $30,000 – for payment of outstanding employer CPF contributions for staff.

Profitable Plots group managing director Tim Goldring said last night that he was ‘happy’ with the court’s decision.

The latest decision by Justice Lee will come as good news for those formerly employed by Profitable Plots. A source said that some of them were planning to report the firm to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) yesterday for unpaid wages and CPF contributions.

But a check with MOM yesterday found that no such reports had been filed against the firm.

Profitable Plots, which was known for its TV commercials featuring former professional footballers urging viewers to ‘Buy UK land’, stirred investor fury earlier this year when returns from investments were either delayed or held back.

This triggered a police raid on the firm’s Stanley Street headquarters in August. A CAD investigation report dated Oct 12, submitted as part of court proceedings, put the firm in a bad light.

First, it showed that 106 complaints related to $9.5 million worth of investments were made against the company.

The CAD report also revealed that the firm’s liabilities and obligations to clients far exceeded its assets, giving the police grounds to suspect that the company’s investment schemes were ‘introduced to defraud its clients’.

No charges, however, have yet to be filed against the firm and Mr Goldring has reportedly called the CAD findings ‘wrong and/or inaccurate’.

The CAD has been ordered by the High Court to give an update on the status of its probe against the firm during a hearing on Dec 9.

Source: Straits Times, 1 Dec 2010

SINGAPORE: The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) released new rules on Friday that will set standards and regulate the conduct of estate agency work.

From 15 November, salespersons cannot represent both buyers and sellers in a property transaction under the Estate Agents (Estate Agency Work) Regulations.

It will also prohibit estate agents and salespersons from handling cash in certain transactions or referring their clients to any moneylender.

Other provisions will kick in on 1 January.

They include prescribed estate agency agreements that estate agents will use with their clients for the sale, purchase or lease of residential property in Singapore.

Individuals who undertake estate agency work will also be required to take part in continuing professional development programmes for a minimum of 6 hours per year from 2011.

From March next year, the regulations will require salespersons to display their estate agent’s card, when doing estate agency work. This is to allow the industry sufficient time to comply with the estate agent’s card requirement.

Separately, the Estate Agents (Licensing and Registration) Regulations and the Estate Agents (Fees) Regulations will take effect on 1 November.

Application for estate agent’s license and salesperson’s registration will start from that date and those who successfully register with CEA will have their names published on its website from 1 January.

Those who do not meet the licensing or registration criteria will not be granted a license or registration. This includes those with criminal records, especially for fraud and dishonesty.

Also from January next year, it will be an offence for sales persons who are not registered with CEA to handle estate agency work.

They must also have written agreements with estate agents before they can practise.

Source: Channel News Asia, 29 Oct 2010