ST - Property agents run into difficulty over enhanced anti-money laundering rules

[congster2]

https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...t-enhanced-anti-money-laundering-requirements

Property agents run into difficulty over enhanced anti-money laundering rules​

Agents and property agencies were supposed to perform stricter due diligence checks from July 1, when changes kicked in for the Estate Agents Act and its subsidiary legislation, the Estate Agents (Prevention of Money Laundering, Proliferation Financing and Terrorism Financing) Regulations.

The deadline has been extended to Dec 31 following industry feedback, CEA said in response to queries from The Straits Times.

Before the revised regulations, property agents and agencies were required only to conduct due diligence measures on their own clients.

The enhanced framework expands checks beyond an agent’s own client to include unrepresented parties in a deal, such as a direct buyer when the agent represents the seller. The CEA said the changes align with international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force.

Property agents must also verify the source of funds used to buy or rent a private property, identify ultimate beneficial owners when entities are involved, and keep fuller records.

The changes also require agents to guard against proliferation financing – the provision of funds for the illicit development and supply of weapons of mass destruction and related materials.

Property agencies said they support the policy intent, but agents had reported challenges in applying the new procedures in everyday deals.

The most cited pain point was collecting sensitive information such as source of funds, particularly from people they do not represent.

Mr Eddie Lim, chief agency officer of real estate company PropNex Realty, described it as a “compliance gap”, as the new rules legally oblige agents to obtain documents from parties who are “neither contractually nor relationally bound to respond”.

For example, those who are not the clients of PropNex agents may “see little reason to cooperate”, he said. Clients are also not mandated by any governing body to comply with an agent’s checks.

“Similarly, processes like enhanced checks on well-established landlords or verifying source of funds have been raised as sensitive or difficult to execute in the field,” said Mr Lim.

He added that moving from the initial announcement to the implementation of these measures, it felt “relatively sudden” and did not give agencies sufficient lead time to adjust internal processes or train their people.

PropNex, Singapore’s largest real estate agency with more than 13,700 agents, said smaller outfits could feel the strain most. As at Jan 1, 2025, there were 36,058 registered property agents in Singapore.

Mr Eugene Lim, key executive officer of real estate agency ERA Singapore, said additional checks could slow down transactions or cause them to fall through.

PropNex agent Richard Tan said that as a shophouse specialist handling high-value deals, he found it challenging to obtain information on third parties such as buyers or tenants when he is representing the seller.

“The new rule states that even if I represent the seller, I am required to collect details about the buyer. But the buyer’s agent may be reluctant to disclose this because client details are valuable,” said Mr Tan.

He added: “We also have to ask customers to fill out a customer particulars form before a viewing. That would be impractical, as who will give out sensitive details and sign a form even before viewing the property?”

Come, a moment of silence for pro agents who will make 4m a year instead of 5m.

 

[Philipkee]

Mybfd, can always quit if not happy.. Idk if its too much responsibility on them,

Govt bears first authority

but i guess they can no longer assume here assume there, cannot act blur and close one or even both eye without any liability anymore while banking in their paycheck..

What authority are u giving to property agents by way of checking? Cannot be like u r not authorised to access bank records for checking but if there is something wrong, its your fault

So jialat or they really have a lot of shady buyers? They pay in hard cold cash? Or very suspicious like someone in their 20s who never even work few years yet can afford to buy property and pay in full even?

My experience is that when there is a lot of money involved, strange things can happen. Why can’t pay in cash? Why 20 year old cannot be ASK? How far is the agent allowed to check before he oversteps his authority?

 

[pwongkk]

Pushing the buck to the property agents when the regulators failed in their job.

 

[GarnetDragon]

 

[stanlawj]

Might as well say charities also want to earn quick donations without checking source of funds

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/billion-dollar-money-laundering-community-chest-presidents-challenge-charities-donations-3838286#:~:text=Trump%20podcasts%20Wellness-,Billion%2Ddollar%20money%20laundering%20case:%20President's%20Challenge%20got%20S$350%2C000,court%20with%20money%20laundering%20offences.

Wow... property agent is treated like charity???

C'mon, stick to the topic. Don't divert to charity.

Just get buyer to fill in the form, declare source of fund, and attach proof from financial institution.
Can't do, won't do = no deal.

 

[NoSouL]

should push the responsibility to the law firms.

fair to get the agent to do it for their own client, but quite tough if it is not their client. eg seller's agent doing it for a buyer because the buyer has no agent.

and what if both side also no agent? this can happen too.

as for bank, the rich ones might not be taking a loan.

but definitely they have to engage a law firm for the transaction. so law firm is the most suitable point to do it.

somehow the authorities seems to be very lenient towards law firm. eg for the 99-1 loophole, law firms that are involved are not penalized.

 

[firestyle]

A lot agents due to China money laundering got their license revoked

This is new to me.

A lot of agents means how many actually? Got sauce on this?

 

[firestyle]

Just admit it, property agents want to earn quick bucks without checking source of funds.

To be fair, moi think this could be the authority's attempt to do less and pass the buck when things happened.

Imagine if you are a high net worth property buyer, would you want to disclose sensitive info about yourself to any tom, dick & harry estate agents?

 

[stanlawj]

Govt bears first authority

What authority are u giving to property agents by way of checking? Cannot be like u r not authorised to access bank records for checking but if there is something wrong, its your fault

My experience is that when there is a lot of money involved, strange things can happen. Why can’t pay in cash? Why 20 year old cannot be ASK? How far is the agent allowed to check before he oversteps his authority?

should push the responsibility to the law firms.

fair to get the agent to do it for their own client, but quite tough if it is not their client. eg seller's agent doing it for a buyer because the buyer has no agent.

and what if both side also no agent? this can happen too.

as for bank, the rich ones might not be taking a loan.

but definitely they have to engage a law firm for the transaction. so law firm is the most suitable point to do it.

somehow they seems to be very lenient very law firm. eg for the 99-1 loophole, law firms that are involved are not penalized.

The suggestion by NoSoul is to let law firms get involved. This may be suitable alternative or option for certain buyers. So I think this may address the issues Philipkee highlighted.

 

[kamipify]

More like can’t help to wash more

 

[V_for_Vanilla]

The suggestion by NoSoul is to let law firms get involved. This may be suitable alternative or option for certain buyers. So I think this may address the issues Philipkee highlighted.

Law firms and especially financial institutions bear prime responsibility in ascertaining source of funds. If even they can't ascertain how would property agents be able to.

 

[Whimsica]

So while we extend the deadline for the property agents, shouldn't we also put a temporary hold on transactions esp those, say, > $1.7M which is the median private home price in Singapore?

Pretty sure there is a 4th wave of tiong money coming in, following (1) covid, (2) common prosperity, (3) covid zero, with the current being (4) live till 150 yo.

 

[BigMonkey]

what kind of rubbish lazy reasoning is this?

if they don’t want to provide means its a signal for you not to represent them. really can spin uneducated reasons.

“The most cited pain point was collecting sensitive information such as source of funds, particularly from people they do not represent.”

 

[Ronin881]

Wan to earn the money but dun wanna do the necessary work?

It could mean that the dirty money issue is more prevalent than the real estate agents would like us to believe.

 

[Philipkee]

just asking for forms to be filled

if buyer dont want provide, then can't sell lol
find another buyer

so simpur also can't understand

once it is SOP everywhere, buyer also no choice if he wanna buy
we should not give in to these niao complaints

once paper is signed and filled, someone is there to be accountable

very simple concept


that's exactly the point. To hold someone accountable for dirty money in case something happen
then what? want good old days after billion $ money washing case?

I think the buck stops with the G

Wow... property agent is treated like charity???

C'mon, stick to the topic. Don't divert to charity.

Just get buyer to fill in the form, declare source of fund, and attach proof from financial institution.
Can't do, won't do = no deal.

It’s not diversion to charity but if u expect property agents to do checks, why not charities?

and I doubt it’s just forms cos if it’s just forms, then it’s just a cya and nothing will change

 

[V_for_Vanilla]

what kind of rubbish lazy reasoning is this?

if they don’t want to provide means its a signal for you not to represent them. really can spin uneducated reasons.

“The most cited pain point was collecting sensitive information such as source of funds, particularly from people they do not represent.”

I can just tell you my source of funds is Savings. How are you going to verify? You as a mere agent have no authority to go further other than requesting me to sign off on a form. Is this even useful. If you deal with banks it is the same thing too. But banks at least can see and verify the money trail and transactions.

 

[NintendoSwitch]

https://www.straitstimes.com/singap...t-enhanced-anti-money-laundering-requirements

Property agents run into difficulty over enhanced anti-money laundering rules​

Agents and property agencies were supposed to perform stricter due diligence checks from July 1, when changes kicked in for the Estate Agents Act and its subsidiary legislation, the Estate Agents (Prevention of Money Laundering, Proliferation Financing and Terrorism Financing) Regulations.

The deadline has been extended to Dec 31 following industry feedback, CEA said in response to queries from The Straits Times.

Before the revised regulations, property agents and agencies were required only to conduct due diligence measures on their own clients.

The enhanced framework expands checks beyond an agent’s own client to include unrepresented parties in a deal, such as a direct buyer when the agent represents the seller. The CEA said the changes align with international standards set by the Financial Action Task Force.

Property agents must also verify the source of funds used to buy or rent a private property, identify ultimate beneficial owners when entities are involved, and keep fuller records.

The changes also require agents to guard against proliferation financing – the provision of funds for the illicit development and supply of weapons of mass destruction and related materials.

Property agencies said they support the policy intent, but agents had reported challenges in applying the new procedures in everyday deals.

The most cited pain point was collecting sensitive information such as source of funds, particularly from people they do not represent.

Mr Eddie Lim, chief agency officer of real estate company PropNex Realty, described it as a “compliance gap”, as the new rules legally oblige agents to obtain documents from parties who are “neither contractually nor relationally bound to respond”.

For example, those who are not the clients of PropNex agents may “see little reason to cooperate”, he said. Clients are also not mandated by any governing body to comply with an agent’s checks.

“Similarly, processes like enhanced checks on well-established landlords or verifying source of funds have been raised as sensitive or difficult to execute in the field,” said Mr Lim.

He added that moving from the initial announcement to the implementation of these measures, it felt “relatively sudden” and did not give agencies sufficient lead time to adjust internal processes or train their people.

PropNex, Singapore’s largest real estate agency with more than 13,700 agents, said smaller outfits could feel the strain most. As at Jan 1, 2025, there were 36,058 registered property agents in Singapore.

Mr Eugene Lim, key executive officer of real estate agency ERA Singapore, said additional checks could slow down transactions or cause them to fall through.

PropNex agent Richard Tan said that as a shophouse specialist handling high-value deals, he found it challenging to obtain information on third parties such as buyers or tenants when he is representing the seller.

“The new rule states that even if I represent the seller, I am required to collect details about the buyer. But the buyer’s agent may be reluctant to disclose this because client details are valuable,” said Mr Tan.

He added: “We also have to ask customers to fill out a customer particulars form before a viewing. That would be impractical, as who will give out sensitive details and sign a form even before viewing the property?”

Serpents neber kill any marnee making industry cannot sleep well isit?

 

[NintendoSwitch]

I think the buck stops with the G

It’s not diversion to charity but if u expect property agents to do checks, why not charities?

and I doubt it’s just forms cos if it’s just forms, then it’s just a cya and nothing will change

It wun stop there. Dun act pikachu when chiu go buy cai png n jhk ask 4 yr financial statements.

 

[Philipkee]

what kind of rubbish lazy reasoning is this?

if they don’t want to provide means its a signal for you not to represent them. really can spin uneducated reasons.

“The most cited pain point was collecting sensitive information such as source of funds, particularly from people they do not represent.”

I think the first question is, is it actually legal for the property agents to ask for these info? I can understand the govt asking for these info but property agents?

 

[NintendoSwitch]

I can just tell you my source of funds is Savings. How are you going to verify? You as a mere agent have no authority to go further other than requesting me to sign off on a form. Is this even useful. If you deal with banks it is the same thing too. But banks at least can see and verify the money trail and transactions.

The whole idea seems 2b 2 persecute RES. Any body 2 take the fall other than serpents cum mini-stars.