This and that

Counsel take exception to Horizon Towers report

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Everyone knows it's just a game they play in court; see who can make the quickest and smartest retort. Perhaps the journalist did hit below the belt by suggesting latent personal acrimony between the counsel. After all, throw any three lawyers into a room together and I'm sure you could dig up some kind of personal past relationship; old rivals from Raffles for a start.
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Nothing to report on the Tampines Court front. We are still waiting for the sale committee to make the next move. They wasted no time in marketing the property within 2 days on reaching 80%, yet it's nearing 7 months since the sale and they still haven't applied to the STB. Pity the order wasn't in reverse. The STB schedule is believed to be full, so even when they do file, it might be a long time before a hearing can be scheduled....

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Minton Rise's hearing (a privatised HUDC) is before the STB this week (or so I was told earlier). Poor Minton Risers, another HUDC sold down the river for just the bare reserve price. Some details:

Kheng Leong, a privately owned property group, bought the 472,378.5 sq ft site in Hougang for $209 million on 14/15 Jan 2007. It has a 2.8 plot ratio which could mean a new condo with about 1,100 units averaging 1,200 sq ft.. Minton Rise has 342 apartments and owners will receive about $611K on average, which works out to about $236 psf of potential gross floor area, inclusive of developmental cost and differential premium. (A pittance for their site, they won't even be able to afford one of those shiny new homes, it's downgrading for most of them. A travesty.)

Minority owners have secured a higher valuation for their estate than the sale price, $31 million according to the Today article -6 July. Some of the majority owners are now up in arms about receiving around $100,000 less than they could have.

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Horizon Towers ruling out Thursday 11 October:

Court to rule today on STB dismissal decision

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