{"id":81274,"date":"2018-02-28T10:59:35","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T03:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/ex-property-agents-plead-guilty-to-illegal-short-term-rentals\/"},"modified":"2018-02-28T11:02:59","modified_gmt":"2018-02-28T04:02:59","slug":"ex-property-agents-plead-guilty-to-illegal-short-term-rentals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/ex-property-agents-plead-guilty-to-illegal-short-term-rentals\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-property agents plead guilty to illegal short-term rentals"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThe two men earned at least $19,000 over a period of five weeks.
\nEarning at least $19,000 over a period of five weeks, two men facing four charges of illegally renting out condominium units for short-term stay via home-sharing sites such as Airbnb pleaded guilty on Tuesday (27 Feb), reported the Straits Times.
\nWhile Yao Songliang, 34 and Terence Tan En Wei, 35, face fines of up to $200,000 for each charge, the prosecution sought a fine of $20,000 for each charge or a total of $80,000 per person.
\nDefense lawyers, on the other hand, sought a fine of $5,000 per charge.
\nDeputy Public Prosecutor Selene Yap noted that while the offences occurred between 15 May and 21 June last year, the total profits made by the two men were likely much higher given that they had been renting out condominium units at the d\u2019Leedon condo since late 2015.
\nYao and Tan, for instance, earned \u00a32,455 (S$4,406) from two guests who rented a 59 sq m flat for 23 nights and 38,823 Philippine pesos (S$1,039) from six guests who rented a similar sized unit for five nights.
\nTo hide their activities, the duo, who were both real estate agents with Savills Residential, \u201cused deception and evasion\u201d by making guests lie about the actual unit they were staying in or leading guests to a different flat to wait out suspicious security guards, said the prosecution.
\nIn February 2017, a URA guideline against short-term accommodation of less than six months in private homes was incorporated in the Planning Act.
\nOn 30 June that same year, the bar was lowered further to less than three months for private homes, while the minimum stay for HDB flats remained at six months.
\nMeanwhile, Mich Goh, Airbnb\u2019s head of public policy for Southeast Asia, said: \u201cWe believe that an individual should, minimally, be able to share the private residence that they live in; and that no individual should be criminalised for sharing their home.\u201d
\nNonetheless, she revealed that the company is committed to working with the government in finding a legislative solution that suits the city-state.
\nInterested in renting a property in Singapore? Check out our collection of guides.
\n\u00a0
\nRomesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email\u00a0romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
\n
\nSource : proppertyguru.com.sg\/Property Market
\nRead more…Ex-property agents plead guilty to illegal short-term rentals<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The two men earned at least $19,000 over a period of five weeks. Earning at...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-property-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75ss1-l8S","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":76974,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/two-airbnb-hosts-to-plead-guilty-to-illegal-home-sharing\/","url_meta":{"origin":81274,"position":0},"title":"Two Airbnb hosts to plead guilty to illegal home-sharing","date":"January 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The lawyer of two Airbnb hosts who were charged in Singapore with unauthorised short-term letting expects both men to plead guilty in February, reported Reuters. Court documents show that the two men \u2013 34-year old Yao Song Liang and 35-year old Terence Tan En Wei \u2013 faces four charges\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":73810,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/two-men-charged-over-illegal-home-sharing\/","url_meta":{"origin":81274,"position":1},"title":"Two men charged over illegal home-sharing","date":"December 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Two men were brought to court on Tuesday (5 December) for illegally leasing out four condominium units for short-term stays via Airbnb, reported Channel News Asia. 34-year old Yao Song Liang and 35-year old Terence Tan En Wei each faced four charges under the Planning Act, which prohibits converting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":108458,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/property-agent-charged-with-renting-out-homes-for-illegal-short-term-stays\/","url_meta":{"origin":81274,"position":2},"title":"Property agent charged with renting out homes for illegal short-term stays","date":"June 26, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\r A property agent has been charged with renting out multiple homes for illegal short-term stays. On May 7, the URA announced that Airbnb-style short-term accommodation will remain illegal in Singapore. A property agent has been brought to court for allegedly renting out residential properties for illegal short-term accommodation, reported\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":114744,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/former-property-agent-fined-88000-for-unlawfully-offering-short-term-accommodation\/","url_meta":{"origin":81274,"position":3},"title":"Former property agent fined $88,000 for unlawfully offering short-term accommodation","date":"March 6, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The fine was the highest meted out for such offence so far. Joel Su Jiqing, a former property agent, was fined $88,000 on Thursday (5 March) for unlawfully offering short-term accommodation to tourists via online platform Airbnb. The fine was the highest meted out for such offence so far,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84484,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/firm-taken-to-court-for-housing-21-foreign-workers-in-overcrowded-conditions\/","url_meta":{"origin":81274,"position":4},"title":"Firm taken to court for housing 21 foreign workers in overcrowded conditions","date":"April 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\r Accommodations provider Sino Star and its managing director could be imprisoned for up to 12 months and fined. Sino Star Enterprise, an accommodations provider, and its managing director Zhou Fengxing were charged by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) in the State Courts on Tuesday (3 Apr) for abetting an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":107570,"url":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/property-news\/cascadale-up-for-collective-sale-for-270m\/","url_meta":{"origin":81274,"position":5},"title":"Cascadale up for collective sale for $270m","date":"May 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\r The location is also attractive for redevelopment into serviced residences. Cascadale, a 134-unit condominium development along Upper Changi Road East, has been put up for collective sale with a reserve price of $270 million, revealed marketing agent JLL. This works out to a land rate of $1,071 per sq\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Property News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cascadale.jpg?fit=820%2C410&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81274"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.siamlandbank.com\/propertynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}