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Daily Archives: 19 Sep 2009

Golden Mile owners try backdoor route to en bloc sale

Posted on 19 Sep 2009 | Comments Off

They hope 20 per cent of units will be sold to single buyer so there would be fewer parties to deal with

Property owners at the Golden Village Mile Complex have roped in property agents, who have been instructed to set a reserve price pf $1,300 psf for apartments and offices, and S$1,500 psf for shops. — ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE

PROPERTY owners at the Golden Mile Complex who have failed twice to sell the property collectively are trying again – using a novel but risky backdoor approach.

A group of them have chosen, for now, to avoid obtaining the usual approval from owners of 80 per cent of the 705-unit mixed development in Beach Road required in collective sales.

Instead, they hope to persuade a number of owners there, as well as those at the Golden Mile Tower next door, to appoint a property agent to sell their individual offices, apartments or shops.

The group is dangling exceptionally high reserve prices to tempt owners into selling. The property agents it has roped in are promising to scout for offers of no less than $1,300 per sq feet (psf) for apartments and offices, which is double what they are fetching now. Continue reading →

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Posted in En-bloc / Collective Sales

Tagged Collective Sales, Enbloc, Golden Mile Complex, Singapore Property

Are private homes getting out of reach?

Posted on 19 Sep 2009 | 1 comment

OF ALL the maxims that Singaporeans hold to be true, a key one is that condominium units here have become less affordable over the years, forcing their children and grandchildren to inhabit smaller and smaller spaces, farther and farther away in the suburbs.

So, when a Straits Times report last month cited an economist and a property consultant stating separately that the affordability of private homes has increased since the property boom in 1996, some readers were up in arms.

The duo used different formulas but their conclusions were the same: Singaporeans’ wealth had grown more than private home prices in the last decade, making homes more ‘affordable’ – at least in the ways they each defined the term.

For many readers, the conclusion was inexplicable and unacceptable.

The property market had breached unprecedented levels in 2007, and it hardly took a breather during the recession before powering ahead again this year. Incomes, they felt, could not possibly have risen more quickly than home prices.

Mr Ng Kok Lim, a polytechnic academic staff member, was among those who wrote to The Straits Times’ Forum page disagreeing with the conclusion. Continue reading →