Ex-real estate agents turn to Uber to make ends meet

Commissions can no longer keep them afloat.

When Billy Loh started in 2008 as a property agent, his profession was seen as a route to wealth in Singapore. Now, he has to know his way around the city to pay the bills.

Loh, 50, is driving for Uber Technologies Inc. in the city-state, where government curbs to cool the market have mired property prices in the longest losing streak in 17 years and transaction volumes have plunged by as much as two-thirds since 2012. After going half a year without doing any deals, Loh switched to driving and is earning on average S$3,000 ($2,115) a month, one-tenth of the up to S$30,000 commission he could get from a single home sale during the market’s heyday.

"The market is slow because of the cooling measures," said Loh, as he drove a Toyota Corolla he has been renting since October, when he started driving for Uber. "We have no choice, we have to come up with means to make ends meet."

Read the full report from Bloomberg here.