Property Agent voice

Since I frequently post letters from minority dissenters in full, it is only fair that I post an property agent viewpoint received today through a comment.

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Dear Owners,

The Tampines Court en bloc has the overwhelming support of the owners. If there was a general election in any democratic country, the en bloc would be said to have received a landslide victory from amongst the owners. Surely the wishes of the overwhelming majority in any democracy must prevail over the wishes of the minority! The minority owners are exactly what they are, that is, they are in the minority.

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The owners of Tampines Court own the land according to their share values - they are joint owners of the land. If the majority owners of the land wish to sell the land, should the minority owners hold all of us up? The minority have lost the fight to prevent the majority from obtaining the 80% consensus. They have failed, and now they try to block the process in the STB, against the will of the majority. Only a minority of the minority objects at the STB Of the ....minority owners who have not signed the CSA, there are only....objectors. Obviously the other minority owners are prepared to let the objectors fight the futile fight, whilst they watch the fire from a safe distance.

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If the STB orders costs against the objectors, the objectors alone will have to bear the costs. Do all the objectors appreciate that they are risking their money for the good of the non-objecting minority owners? Some of the minority (and the objectors) have themselves bought alternative flats!So why are the objectors still objecting? Surely the thing to do is to get the en bloc STB order as soon as possible, so that completion could take place as soon as possible. In another en bloc case, some of the owners bought alternative units and the objector 'fought' all the way.The objector lost the case, and had to pay huge costs to the majority. In the process, the owners who had contracted to buy alternative flats were sued by the sellers of the alternative flats, because of the delay in the completion of the en bloc. The objector caused much misery to himself and all the other owners.

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The Property Market has fallen! At the time that the en bloc process was started, owners were looking at a substantial premium. Now, if Tampines Court is to be tendered out, the price would have fallen. The subprime losses are said to be in the region of $1,000 billion! The whole market is uncertain, and developers are looking more at state land sales instead. There are so many sites available, and developers do not have to wait for the troublesome process of the STB. Just look at the following examples:Royalville, a 174,176-sq ft freehold residential property located along Bukit Timah Road, will be put up jointly with an 8,420-sq ft drainage reserve for collective sale. The combined indicative asking price is S$305 million. Including a development charge (DC) of S$6 million, the price works out to S$1,106 per sq ft per plot ratio (ppr), which is 10 to 15 per cent lower than the previous indicative. (The Business Times, 8th April 2008)

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The S$516 million collective sale of Tulip Garden, a freehold residential property located along Farrer Road, to a unit of Bravo Building Construction has been officially rescinded. The collapse of the en bloc transaction was down to the majority owners’ refusal to accept the developer’s request for an ‘unconditional’ extension of time of the next 5 per cent instalment payment due to them. (The Business Times, The Straits Times, 9th April 2008)

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Amber Glades, a freehold residential property located along Amber Gardens, has been relaunched for collective sale at an indicative asking price of S$127 million. Including of a DC of S$3.5 million, the price works out to S$1,140 per sq ft ppr, which is 15 per cent lower than the previous indicative. (The Business Times, 9th April 2008)

Replacement units are available if the STB order is obtained quickly, then we would all be paid quickly as well.Then we would be able to use that money to buy alternative units.
April 15, 2008 4:35 PM