EcoHouse, the developer responsible for what was arguably Singapore’s top-selling overseas investment in 2012, has stopped selling its Brazilian property investments in Singapore.
The reason for the halt in sales, according to a spokesperson for the company speaking to PropertyGuru, is that : “.. the primary focus is to allow construction in Brazil to catch up before launching further phases to new investors.”
He added: “We did not feel that it was right to continue to market to new investors in Singapore, and felt that we should focus on looking after our existing clients.”
He also reiterated that the EcoHouse office in Singapore is very much active and clients are welcome there at any time to discuss their investments.
PropertyGuru was contacted by investors who had signed modifications to their agreements with the expectation of returns being paid out before the end of the year.
The spokesperson said: “At the time of pledging to make the pay outs we thought that we would have the required funds available. Many payments were made, but many in other batches were not. We are still, unfortunately, working through the documentation needed as the amount of people taking advantage of this scheme also exceeded our initial expectations.”
He added that it is in the company’s interests to make the payments on time and delays are also not helpful for EcoHouse.
Investors have also been concerned about an article which appeared in the satirical U.K. magazine Private Eye during mid-November, questioning the ability of EcoHouse to meet its obligations.
The spokesperson said: “This article was really part of an ongoing spat between Private Eye and the Guardian newspapers in the U.K., where there is not much love lost. This was a short paragraph that was referring to a couple of negative blogs.”
“Of course we would rather take note of the many, many positive articles written by journalists who have either interviewed Senior EcoHouse executives or visited Brazil to see our projects for themselves, including PropertyGuru.”
EcoHouse plans to contact all its Singapore investors shortly with further updates.
It is believed that more than 1,200 individual overseas property investments have been sold to investors throughout Southeast Asia by EcoHouse in the last three years.
Written by Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group.
Article source PropertyGuru.com.sg Group.
Which Investments 
Singapore’s top-selling overseas investment in 2012 and 2013 i you want to be accurate, Loads of people still want to invest in Malaysia, Singapore, China, Europe, The UK and N America, Their first minha casa, minha vida development back in 2011 went under the radar for most and a few privileged property investors enjoyed and quick turn-around on their investment in the development called Arco-Iris (Natal again).
Now Ecohouse are known worldwide as a company that delivers so every man and his dog want’s in on the action, this meant demand outweighed supply so of course ecohouse found themselves playing catchup.
A few inexperienced and first time investors kicked off when some returns were delayed, this is what investing is like, to be honest i don’t really know of any building projects that finished on-time? There are simply too many variables.
I met the Ecohouse CEO at a recent gala dinner at the natural history museum in london, very down to earth bloke, not what I expected, i spoke to him about investing in their project and he introduced me to an actual investor, he was from singapore’ cant remember his name, and he could not praise the project enough… i doubt singaporeans are easily bought they seem like a stubborn bunch ( said with the upmost respect ) so i was sold… pity investment is closed off for the moment…