SINGAPORE: Four companies, including a hospitality group, and two individuals have been charged in court for allegedly providing illegal short-term accommodation.
They are said to have provided unauthorised short-term stays at 170 units within 50 private residential developments across Singapore, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said in a media release on Tuesday (Jul 1).
The accused were handed a total of 340 counts of providing illegal short-term accommodation across two separate cases, with each charge carrying a maximum fine of S$200,000 (US$157,379).
The minimum stay duration for private residential properties is three consecutive months.
URA said this rule is intended to prevent frequent turnover of transient occupants, “which can potentially change the residential character of a property and could negatively impact neighbouring residents”.
THE CASES
Three companies – MR Singapore, Metro Relocations and Cleaning Centre – face a total of 90 counts of providing illegal short-term accommodation, while their director, James Chua Yun Da, was handed another 90 counts on Tuesday.
These offences were allegedly carried out at 90 units across 22 private residential developments across the country, URA said.
URA also said that on Jun 17, it had charged ST Hospitality and its former chief operating officer, Joshua Goh Keng Hong, with 80 counts each of providing unauthorised short-term accommodation.
ST Hospitality and Goh had allegedly committed the offence at 80 units within 28 private residential developments across Singapore.
According to ST Hospitality’s website, it runs service apartments at 12 Kim Keat Road in Balestier as well as five co-living hotels in areas such as Bugis, Tanjong Pagar, Chinatown and Jalan Besar. ST Hospitality is a a wholly owned subsidiary of Katrina Group, whose F&B arm operates brands like Bali Thai and So Pho.
