EcoHouse on MAS Watch List

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Another overseas property developer (EcoHouse) being put on MAS Investor Alert List. Open your eyes (and use your brain as well) for those who can't wait to step into the bottomless pit of "foreign property investment".

http://www.propertyguru.com.sg/property-management-news/2014/7/38098/ecohouse-on-mas-watch-list


EcoHouse on MAS Watch List

Jul 7, 2014 - PropertyGuru.com.sg

Singapore’s Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has placed overseas property developer EcoHouse on its Investor Alert List.

The list, according to the MAS website, provides a listing of unregulated persons who, based on information received by MAS, may have been wrongly perceived as being licensed or authorised by MAS.

MAS reports EcoHouse’s registered address as being 141 Cecil Street #02-03,Singapore, 069541, while its operating address is indicated as being Suntec Tower 2 #42-01, 9 Temasek Boulevard, Singapore, 038989.

PropertyGuru understands that a private meeting will take place tonight (Monday) involving a Brazilian lawyer and investors who invested in EcoHouse products through the Wendy Kwek Network.

EcoHouse was widely reported throughout the Singapore media as being the best-selliing overseas property investment in Singapore during 2012, and is thought to have more than 800 individual Singaporean investors, along with other investors from Southeast Asia and around the world.

In February 2013 PropertyGuru reported how the company collected more than S$30 million in investments from Singaporeans for its social housing investments in just 48 hours at its Suntec office opening event.

EcoHouse was not immediately available for comment.

Image: Singaporean investors at the opening of the EcoHouse office at Suntec Tower in 2013.

Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email [email protected]

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You may like to read the following articles to follow the development of the whole EcoHouse story:


EcoHouse attracts S$30m in two days (http://www.propertyguru.com.sg/property-management-news/2013/2/35182/ecohouse-attracts-s-30m-in-two-days) (Feb 13, 2013)

EcoHouse refutes get rich quick claims (http://www.propertyguru.com.sg/property-management-news/2013/6/35948/ecohouse-refutes-get-rich-quick-claims) (Jun 10, 2013)

EcoHouse frustrations start to surface (http://www.propertyguru.com.sg/property-management-news/2013/11/36900/ecohouse-frustrations-start-to-surface) (Nov 12, 2013)

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Like what I said in my book No B.S. Guide to Property Investment (http://propertyclubsg.com/resources), since buying foreign properties involves acquiring assets in another country,

unlike buying real estate stocks or trusts, it is not under the governance of the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Potential buyers will find it difficult to verify what the marketers say at the sales presentation. If anyone sounds the alarm of a possible scam in a newspaper article or an investment blog, the whistleblower might be threatened with a defamatory suit by the concerned company, claiming that their company and business have been defamed — when they should be the one to deal with legal proceedings if they fail to deliver the promised return, go out of business or runaway with the investors’ money.

If the names of swindlers are protected by the law, who is there to protect the rights of victims who risk losing all their invested money?