The notorious furniture rebate deal UOB is suing a developer over 38 units at the Marina Collection. The developer allegedly gave rebates of 22 to 34 per cent, resulting in UOB now claiming $92 million in losses from the loans. What exactly is this nonsense? Well, in essence, the developer and the real estate agent work together to let you get a bigger loan amount. For new launches, the valuation is always considered to be the same as the property price (unlike a resale unit, where if there’s a disparity between the sale price and valuation, the loan only covers the lower of the two). This is a strange quirk in real estate, where banks are prepared to lend you money based on whatever the developer decides to price the home (even if the property was exorbitantly priced). At some point, some people worked out that they could use this to help buyers take bigger loans....