Singapore Hits Timeshare Sector
Yesterday four global shared ownership firms jointly issued a statement to Singapore's Straits Times regarding a proposed new government amendment to consumer laws.
Thailand's Anantara Vacation Club, Interval International (II), RCI and Wyndham Vacation Ownership are crying foul over a possible change, which would disallow the collection of payments during the mandatory 5-day cooling off period following a sale.
The Straits Times published article yesterday, which said that complaints over timeshare and other alternative ownership programs were a leading source of complaints with the Consumer Association of Singapore.
Comments from the four industry players said that potential financial fall-out could be enormous if companies were unable to effectively close deals at the time of transaction through a deposit process, as it would allow buyers to easily walk away from deals.
Thailand has a consumer code, which necessitates a cooling off period for timeshare transactions.