ERA Realty Network issued a Letter of Censure for supervisory lapses

SINGAPORE – ERA Realty Network (ERA), the second-largest real estate agent in Singapore by headcount, has been issued a Letter of Censure (LOC) by the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) for failing to adequately manage and supervise its real estate salespeople.

This is the first time a property agency ranked among the top five in terms of headcount has been censured.

One of ERA’s salespeople, Mr Abel Ang Pei Xiong, had been the subject of multiple complaints submitted to CEA for posting inaccurate information in his advertisement listings.

The LOC does not carry a financial penalty against ERA.

An LOC is issued for breaches that are assessed to be less serious to be referred to a CEA disciplinary committee.

Some key considerations in assessing whether a breach is less serious include whether there is any financial loss to parties involved in the transaction, or if the errant salesperson or estate agent has any wrongful gain.

Under the LOC framework, CEA is empowered to issue LOCs and impose financial penalties of up to $5,000 per case for less serious disciplinary breaches by real estate agencies and salespeople.

CEA’s LOC for ERA follows repeated instances where the agency’s internal controls did not prevent or respond appropriately to its salespeople’s regulatory lapses.

In an article published on its website on Jan 8, CEA said the LOC stems from three breaches under the Code of Practice for Estate Agents (COPEA).

CEA’s action centres on supervisory failures involving Mr Ang.

CEA said it had received multiple complaints against him for advertisement-related breaches, such as posting ads that contained inaccurate pricing and misleading or inaccurate information on the property listed.

ERA was advised in March 2022 to vet Mr Ang’s ad listings for accuracy before they are posted, as it has a responsibility to do so under the COPEA.

In 2023, Mr Ang was fined $14,000 and suspended for five months from October 2023 to March 2024 by a CEA disciplinary committee for publishing property ads containing inaccurate and misleading information.

CEA noted that Mr Ang continued with the same offences even after his suspension. In October 2025, he was fined $28,000 and suspended for six months.

The article noted that ERA had two more lapses, including inadequate systems for managing and supervising its suspended salespeople.

In January 2024, during Mr Ang’s suspension period, his profile was still active on ERA’s portal, FindPropertyAgent.sg, alongside the profiles of two other suspended salespersons.

The other two salespersons were not identified and CEA did not say what breaches they had committed.

The Straits Times has contacted CEA for more information.

“There were no processes in place to ensure the removal of the profiles of suspended real estate salespersons from ERA’s portal during their suspension period,” said CEA on its website.

ERA also did not have a system in place at that time to track whether suspended real estate salespeople returned their estate agent cards, and there was no standard process in place to deal with those who failed to do so, CEA added.

CEA said these events showed that ERA had failed to meet its obligation under the COPEA to manage and supervise its real estate salespeople.

ERA was also issued composition notices for associating with suspended salespeople when they were not registered.

In reply to ST’s queries, ERA said two of the salespeople are registered with the company. “They have been reminded and are fully committed to complying with their regulatory obligations,” it said.

“One salesperson is currently serving a suspension. We will assess his case after the suspension has been fully served and will only allow him to be registered with ERA if he is fully committed to complying with his regulatory obligations.”

According to the CEA public register, ERA is the second-largest real estate agent in Singapore with 8,469 registered agents as at Jan 8, after PropNex, which has 14,020 agents.

Mr Eugene Lim, key executive officer of ERA Singapore, said: “The issues identified relate to process enhancements in the management and supervision of suspended salespersons, rather than to consumer harm.

“During the suspension period, the profiles of suspended salespersons remained visible on our public portal due to technical delays in the execution of profile deactivation procedures following suspension.”

Mr Lim added that the suspended salesperson was notified to return his estate agent card in accordance with existing procedures, and “enhancements to tracking and escalation processes have since been identified to ensure more timely recovery”.

“We acknowledge that we could have done better, and we take responsibility for addressing these gaps. We view this as an important learning point – not just for ERA but for the wider industry – and hope it contributes to stronger supervisory practices across agencies,” he said.

If real estate agencies and salespeople continue to commit less serious breaches repeatedly, CEA may impose a higher financial penalty together with an LOC, or refer the case to a disciplinary committee, depending on the number of repeated breaches committed and the facts and circumstances of the case.

On Feb 21, 2024, property agent Tay Jin Yao was fined $15,000 and suspended for nine months for breaches including forgery and failing to perform the required customer due diligence.

Mr Tan pleaded guilty to the offences, which included miscalculating the estimated cash proceeds in the sale of his clients’ Housing Board flat, and forging their signatures on forms.

In 2023, property agent Ng Ni Ni was convicted by a CEA disciplinary committee for facilitating an HDB flat rental transaction that breached HDB’s minimum occupation period rules, among other breaches. Ms Ng was fined $4,000 and given a five-month suspension.