Changes to the Land Titles (Strata) Act were passed in Parliament, to provide more clarity to the collective sale process. However, some members of Parliament said that the rules may not fully consider the interest of home owners.
The amendments, expected to take its effect in June, are intended to give greater streamline procedures and transparency for en bloc sales, after the Ministry of Law was asked by industry experts to study the regulations that were last amended three years ago.
During the debate, Nominated MP Mildred Tan said that sales committee members must be required to have minimum qualifications like conveyancing, property rights and property law. This is due to the 60-day limit imposed on the mediation of collective sale applications by the Strata Titles Board. The members of the committee should work faster.
The new amendments make it tougher for a land parcel that has filed in for an en bloc sale to be sold again within the two-year period.
Such an attempt will require a 50-percent owners’ support. If that fails, the bar for a bid will be raised to 80 percent. However, once the two-year period is up, the bar falls back to 25 percent of owners’ support or 20 percent of share value for another sale attempt.
In the meantime, MP Ellen Lee was concerned that the estate’s reserve price is locked-in in the en bloc sale agreement and could become "out of sync" with the prevailing market value within two years.