Macabre finding in Singapore flat doesn’t deter buyers

Compiled by DIYANA PFORDTEN and C. ARUNO

DESPITE the discovery of skeletal remains inside an HDB flat in Singapore, there have been keen buyers for the unit located in a housing estate named Potong Pasir.

Among them was a 41-year-old taxi driver, identified only as Chen, China Press reported.

“I have done nothing wrong. There is nothing I should be afraid of,” Chen said, adding that she had no taboo about buying a place in which the remains of the previous owner had been found.

Singapore daily Wanbao reported that the remains were only discovered on July 2, 2020 after unsuccessful attempts by Singapore’s National Environment Agency to contact the man to carry out dengue inspections.

A locksmith, who was sent to open the door to the unit, made the macabre finding.

All calendars in the flat were showing June 2011, which indicated that the man had died nine years earlier.

The flat, which has since been put up for sale, attracted keen interest from prospective buyers.

Chen explained that she liked the Potong Pasir neighbourhood.

“My friend moved here not too long ago. There are supermarkets and coffeeshops. It is also close to the MRT.

“I saw the report in the news, which was why I called to enquire about it,” she said.

The deceased’s older brother, whose surname was He, said several potential buyers had visited the property.

“As for the price, we will leave it to the estate agent. Our aim right now is to sell it based on market price,” He said.

> There has been a surge in influencers submitting their tax returns following news that China’s top livestreamer was fined 1.34 billion yuan (RM888mil) for tax evasion, China Press reported.

China’s State Taxation Administration is said to have received thousands of earnings declarations from livestreamers in the country who are now voluntarily paying taxes for fear of being prosecuted.

This came about after Viya, a 36-year-old live-streamer who has tens of millions of followers online, was accused by authorities in Hangzhou of hiding her income, among other financial offences, from 2019 to 2020.

In a post on her Weibo account, Viya said she was “deeply sorry” and that she would “thoroughly accept the punishment from the tax authorities”.

The action taken against Viya was believed to have caused anxiety among other online livestreamers who now voluntarily report their earnings.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.