Fraudulent Foreign Property Transactions

Mr David Ong asked the Minister for National Development over the last two years, what is the number of cases which the Ministry has received involving fraudulent foreign property transactions made by licensed estate agents.

From January 2014 to July 2015, the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) received 12 complaints against five licensed estate agents which marketed foreign properties in Singapore. Three of the 12 complaints were found to be unsubstantiated as no fault or blame can be found on the part of the estate agents.

Investigations into the other nine complaints are ongoing. Of these nine complaints, three involved the developers going into liquidation and the rest are related to contractual fees and investment returns issues. These complaints include the development not being carried out according to schedule and consumers being unable to get their deposits back from the developers after deciding to withdraw from the purchase and alleged misrepresentation by the estate agent.