Senior Appointment Changes at the Council for Estate Agencies

Oct 23, 2015

The Ministry of National Development (MND) announced today the following senior appointment changes at the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), which took effect from 22 October 2015:

• Mr Chionh Chye Khye, currently the Executive Director of CEA, will retire after 41 years in the Public Service.

• Mr Lee Kwong Weng, currently the Deputy Executive Director of CEA, will be appointed as Executive Director of CEA upon Mr Chionh’s retirement.

Mr Chionh has helmed CEA since its formation on 22 October 2010 as a new statutory board under the Ministry of National Development. Under his leadership, CEA put in place a regulatory framework to raise the professional standards of the real estate agency industry and better safeguard consumers’ interests. He established a new licensing regime for estate agents, mandatory registration of salespersons and put in place a system for complaint management, dispute resolution and enforcement.

Mr Chionh was instrumental in raising the professionalism of the industry through continuing training. He introduced the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Scheme to ensure proper industry entry qualification and to upgrade the industry’s technical knowledge. More than 300 CPD courses were developed for the industry.

Mr Chionh fostered an open and consultative culture between CEA and the industry through regular dialogues, focus group discussions and working groups involving industry representatives. In consumer education, Mr Chionh focused on empowering consumers in property transactions. He set up a Public Register of estate agents and salespersons for consumers to verify the identity of industry practitioners. These efforts have resulted in a drop of complaints against the industry from more than 1100 in 2011 to less than 800 in 2014.

Mr Lee Kwong Weng was appointed as Deputy Executive Director of CEA since 1 January 2015. Trained as an engineer, Mr Lee has worked in the Ministry of National Development and its agencies for over 30 years. He joined the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in 1989 where he took on various appointments. As Group Director (Corporate Development), he was instrumental in leading URA to be recognised as a Singapore Quality Award organisation in 2008. In 2011, Mr Lee took on the position of Deputy Chief Executive Officer (Corporate and Technology) at the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) where he led the formulation of a long term food security road map for Singapore.

Council President of CEA Mr Greg Seow said, “I would like to extend our deepest appreciation to Chye Khye for his tireless dedication and steady guidance of CEA since 2010. His leadership has been fundamental in the strides CEA has made in becoming an effective regulator of the real estate agency industry. On behalf of the Council, I wish Chye Khye the very best for a happy retirement. I also warmly welcome Kwong Weng as CEA’s new Executive Director, and am confident that he will lead CEA effectively to regulate and professionalise the industry further”.

The MND would like to express its appreciation to Mr Chionh for his dedication and leadership in the Public Service, and welcomes Mr Lee to his new portfolio at CEA.

Brief write-ups of Mr Chionh and Mr Lee are given at the Annex.