When ST raised the discrepancy in a subsequent interview, Mr Yong said: “My family is preparing to move… because they sold their house, they’re preparing to move into a separate place… So this is a temporary place.”
Asked about his cars in Singapore, Mr Yong said he bought and owned all three vehicles, having purchased the McLaren and Rolls-Royce for close to a million each, and the Porsche for close to half a million.
Checks showed that the Porsche Macan 2.0, which was shown in the Netflix series, is also not owned by Mr Yong, but by his father. The vehicle, first registered in March 2015, was bought used.
According to the 2015 price list by Porsche Singapore posted on car portal Sgcarmart, a brand-new Porsche Macan 2.0 cost $218,888 without the certificate of entitlement (COE). The COE for cars above 1,600cc was reportedly $68,668 and $71,889 in March that year.
Hence, a brand-new Porsche Macan would cost below $300,000 in 2015.
Checks by ST showed that Mr Yong is the sixth owner of the 12-year-old Rolls-Royce Ghost, and he had paid nearly $820,000 for the used 2021 McLaren GT in 2022.
Part of the series also features a realtor taking him around to look at expensive apartments to buy in Seoul. Besides La Terrasse, he also viewed a unit at the apartment complex Raemian One Bailey in the Banpo neighbourhood.
When asked, he said he did not buy the two units featured in the series, but is currently in talks to purchase a separate unit in Hannam that costs around US$10 million.
He also clarified that the private jet seen in the show is chartered and does not belong to him.
Mr Yong said he was happy with the outcome of the show, and has received positive feedback in direct messages and comments on Instagram from viewers around the world.
“I think that nowadays, the viewers, what they want to see is real stuff, real things. Viewers are very sharp, that’s my view, I try to act or try to fool them, you know, try to be somebody I am not, they can tell,” he said.