Huttons Property agent charged under ‘Do Not Call’ rules

Posted on 24 Sep 2014 | Comments Off on Huttons Property agent charged under ‘Do Not Call’ rules

A Huttons property agent is the second person to be charged for offences relating to the Do Not Call (DNC) requirements under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) which took effect on 2 January 2014.

In a statement, the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) said it had received complaints about unsolicited telemarketing messages advertising residential developments allegedly sent by the agent to Singapore telephone numbers that were registered with the DNC Registry.

The agent will be charged in the State Courts on Wednesday and faces up to 27 counts of contravening section 43(1) of the PDPA, relating to the obligation to check the DNC Registry before sending any telemarketing messages to Singapore telephone numbers.

According to the Commission, the real estate sector makes up about 47 percent of complaints pertaining to DNC related offences.

Leong Keng Thai, Chairman of the Commission said: “Telemarketers looking to promote their products or services to individuals with Singapore telephone numbers must abide by the DNC provisions.

“It is a frustrating experience for individuals who have registered their numbers with the DNC Registry to continue receiving unsolicited telemarketing messages, and the PDPC will take enforcement action against those who continue to ignore the rules.”

So far, the Commission has investigated more than 3,500 valid complaints against various organisations, while investigations into some 1,700 other complaints are still ongoing. These organisations are from sectors such as property, private education and retail.

Back in August, Star Zest Home Tuition and its director, Law Han Wei, were the first offenders to be fined $39,000 each. Both the agency and Law faced a total of 26 counts of contravening section 43(1) of the PDPA with 48 other similar offences taken into consideration.

Meanwhile, around 4,500 organisations have registered to check Singapore telephone numbers against the DNC Registry in order to comply with the DNC provisions.

Any person or organisation found guilty of the offence of sending unsolicited telemarketing messages to Singapore telephone numbers without checking the DNC Registry can be fined up to $10,000 per message sent.

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S’pore is 6th costliest for home, office rents

Posted on 24 Sep 2014 | Comments Off on S’pore is 6th costliest for home, office rents

The new Savills Live/Work Index has ranked Singapore the world’s sixth most expensive city for companies to locate employees, a position held since 2008.

The index measures the total costs per employee of renting living and working space on a US dollar basis in 12 world cities.

Residential-price-growth

In Singapore, the combined cost of renting residential and office space per employee per year amounted to US$74,890 in June 2014.

Although the housing market here has slowed with prices dropping 4.2 percent in the first six months of 2014, residential values have increased 44.6 percent over the last five years, according to Savills.

The report stated that residential rents have fallen 3.5 percent in H1 2014, but climbed 4.6 percent since 2008.

On the other hand, while work costs have risen sharply with office rents growing 7.3 percent in the first half, this is still around 31 percent below 2008’s level.

“Fluctuations in total live/work costs reflect not only the strength of a city’s residential and office markets and occupier taxes and costs, measured at a local level, but also the impact of fluctuating exchange rates on the cost of doing business on a world stage,” Savills said.

Meanwhile, London has become the world’s most expensive city for companies to locate employees, overtaking Hong Kong, which had previously topped the ranking for an unbroken five-year period.

New York and Paris complete the pack of four leading cities, where the combined costs of renting residential and office space top US$100,000 per employee per year.

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Posted in General, Property Market / Real Estate

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