The Council of Estate Agents (CEA) in Singapore is investigating 20 possible cases of infringement of property agents’ new advertising guidelines, one month after their implementation, according to a Channel NewsAsia report.
Lee Say Kee, Director for Regulatory Control at CEA, said dummy ads, which advertise properties without the owners’ consent, remain the most serious offence.
“This is misleading and we will take the salesperson to task after we have done the proper checks.”
Other cases include advertisements that omit vital information, such as the registration and contact numbers of a salesperson.
The report said the council is conducting random checks on property ads by estate agents, monitoring and scanning online property sites, flyers and classified ads. This has revealed some possible violations of the guidelines. However, almost 50 percent of the cases under investigation resulted from public complaints.
CEA noted that larger agencies have imposed a structured process to regulate their estate agents’ advertising content.
For instance, PropNex Realty, which has approximately 4,500 sales agents, clears its agents’ advertisements via emails and serial numbers for every approved item.
“Before that, marketing gimmicks can be applied but now the information has to be more accurate and cannot be misleading to the consumers,” said Lim Yong Hock, Agency Senior Vice President at PropNex.
“Now, there’s more real information provided in the (agents’) marketing collaterals and I think we’re seeing more professionalism in terms of the marketing material that’s being distributed.”
He added that estate agents find the process time-consuming and troublesome but they have to understand that it is a necessary process within the industry.
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