Two Airbnb hosts charged for renting out condo units, first such case in Singapore
Two men were charged for renting out their condominium units for short-term stay via Airbnb on Tuesday (5 December) at the State Courts, in the first such case in Singapore involving rentals through the home-sharing platform.
Terence Tan En Wei, 35, and Yao Song Liang, 34, face four charges each under the Planning Act. They are accused of renting out four different units at D’leedon Condominium, located near Farrer Road, without the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) permission sometime in May this year.
In February this year, Parliament passed a new law to ban home owners from renting out their properties on a short-term basis unless they obtain permission from the URA. Under the same law, the rental period for a private residential property must be at least three consecutive months. Many Airbnb users typically pay home owners to stay in their properties for days or weeks.
Tan and Yao’s charge sheets state that the units were “occupied by the same person(s) for a period of less than six consecutive months in return for the payment of rent,” which are in breach of the law.
According to news reports, URA investigated about 600 properties in Singapore from January to September this year, almost twice the annual average from 2014 to 2016.
Tan and Yao, who are represented by lawyer Wong Soo Chih, are expected to plead guilty in January. If convicted, they face a fine of up to $200,000 each.
