Number of Estate Agents Disciplined or Fined for Breach of Professional and Ethical Standards
Ministry of National DevelopmentSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the number of estate agents disciplined for breaching professional and ethical standards and whether existing penalties effectively deter misconduct. Mr Saktiandi Supaat inquired about disciplinary statistics, to which Minister for National Development Mr Desmond Lee reported that from 2019 to 2023, 19 agents were convicted in court, 38 received composition fines, 23 had registrations revoked, and 101 faced financial penalties from a Disciplinary Committee. To enhance deterrence, the maximum financial penalty was raised in 2021 to $100,000 for agents and $200,000 for agencies, with the new Letter of Censure regime resulting in 38 censures. Minister for National Development Mr Desmond Lee noted that disciplinary actions are published for transparency and the Council for Estate Agencies will recalibrate the enforcement framework as necessary.
Transcript
59 Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for National Development (a) in each of the past five years, how many estate agents have been disciplined for breaching their professional and ethical obligations and are (i) fined or subject to financial penalty (ii) suspended from practising as an estate agent (iii) disqualified from acting as an estate agent and (iv) sentenced to imprisonment, respectively; and (b) whether the penalties for breaching the Estate Agents Act and its subsidiary regulation are sufficient to deter misconduct by estate agents.
Mr Desmond Lee: The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) takes a serious view of errant behaviour by property agents and will take agents to task for breaching their professional and ethical obligations.
Today, there are about 36,800 registered property agents in Singapore. Property agents who commit offences under the Estate Agents Act 2010 (EAA) or its subsidiary legislation may be prosecuted in Court or issued composition fines by CEA. Between 2019 and 2023, 19 property agents were convicted in Court and fined for offences under the EAA, with none sentenced to imprisonment, 38 property agents were issued composition fines and 23 property agents had their registrations revoked for not being fit and proper to remain registered.
Property agents who commit disciplinary breaches may be subject to disciplinary proceedings before a Disciplinary Committee (DC) or disciplined under the Letter of Censure (LOC) regime, depending on the severity of the breach. Between 2019 and 2023, 101 property agents were given financial penalties and some of them were also suspended by a DC. Since the introduction of the LOC regime in 2021, CEA has censured a total of 38 property agents in 2022 and 2023, of which 16 were also given a financial penalty.
In 2021, to strengthen deterrence, CEA raised the maximum financial penalty that a DC can impose from $75,000 to $100,000 per case for property agents and $200,000 per case for property agencies. Disciplinary actions taken against property agents are also published in the CEA Public Register for added deterrence and transparency. CEA will continue to monitor and recalibrate the enforcement framework where necessary.