Restrict en bloc sales to older properties

I REFER to last Wednesday’s letter by the Ministry of Law, ‘Allowing one owner to stop majority untenable’, in response to Mr Tan Keng Ann’s letter, ‘Review law on en bloc sales’ (Feb 27).

In the same manner, it is also untenable that 90 per cent of owners of property developments less than 10 years old, and 80 per cent for developments at least 10 years old, can decide to sell such properties collectively.

This is because it is wasteful of resources to demolish buildings by using the ‘less than 10 years’ or ‘at least 10 years’ benchmarks.

Therefore I suggest the Government review the law on collective sales and restrict the age of such properties to at least 40 years old.

Not only is it less wasteful but also the building’s owners can at least enjoy a lifetime there, even if the collective sale is eventually successful.

Tony Lee

Source : Straits Times – 9 Mar 2010