THE en bloc fever is stoking more property owners into action, spurring another batch of sites to hop on the bandwagon of collective sales attempts over the weekend.
To kick-start the process, collective sales committees (CSC) were formed for Nim Gardens in Seletar Hills and Ridgewood Condominium at Mount Sinai in prime District 10.
Owners of Dover Parkview condominium in Dover Crescent are also planning to form their CSC soon, though the 99-year leasehold development is just 24 years old, relatively young for a collective sale.
Over at Kovan, owners of freehold Fortune Park condominium last Tuesday appointed Huttons Asia as the marketing agent and will convene its next extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Oct 28 to approve the apportionment of sale proceeds and the collective sale agreement.
Terence Lian, Huttons Asia head of investment sales, told BT that there are also a flurry of ad-hoc meetings among property owners to discuss whether to call for a formal EGM to form the CSC.
"It now seems like every site is forming a sales committee to ride the wave but owners have to be pragmatic in the pricing," he added. "If they form a sales committee but the price is not right, I don't think developers will bite."
It was not a smooth start at freehold Nim Gardens, where owners could not agree on the terms of reference for the CSC on concerns of ceding too much decision-making power to it, a resident told BT. They will have to call another EGM to agree on terms of reference before the CSC can appoint lawyers and consultant.
This collective sales attempt for Nim Gardens could also face a potential bugbear, another resident said.
The area around Nim Gardens was part of an area designated for landed housing in 1994. The 23,197 sq m site was approved as a condominium development in 1982, with one four-storey block and three 10-storey blocks. The new planning provision means any new development cannot exceed the present height or gross floor area.
Nim Gardens currently houses 124 units - including 106 apartments of 1,850 sq ft and 18 maisonettes of 2,100-2,400 sq ft. For a developer to offer a price that is attractive to owners, it will have to build smaller units to the present height, but the plot ratio does not allow for it. Of the five property consultancies approached by owners, only one was willing to explore taking on the job, the resident told BT.
As for the 464-unit Ridgewood Condominium, it is a sprawling 999-year site spanning 672,148 sq ft with a plot ratio of 2.1. Two previous collective sales attempts , in 2007 and 2013, did not get enough approval for the plan to pass.
It is near former HUDC estate Pine Grove, where owners are asking for a reserve price of S$1.65 billion for the over-893,000 sq ft site.
The Business Times
The Business Times