Tampines Court sale dismissed
http://www.straitstimes.com/Money/St...ry_256994.html
July 12, 2008
Tampines Court collective sale in peril
STB rules not to bring forward Aug 7 hearing, which must take place before deal is signed by July 25 deadline
By Jessica Cheam
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CRUCIAL: With no extension, the Tampines Court sale agreement will likely lapse on July 25. -- PHOTO: WWW.CHANKOKHONG.COM.SG
THE sales committee at Tampines Court looks to have shot itself in the foot after a ruling by the Strata Titles Board (STB) yesterday almost certainly killed off its estate's $405 million collective sale.
It delayed seeking mandatory STB approval for the deal and is now caught in a deadline trap of its own making.
The key date is July 25, that is when the estate's sales committee must complete the deal. However, that looks impossible now after yesterday's STB decision.
The board ruled that it would not bring forward an Aug 7 hearing set to allow testimony from witnesses that have yet to be called.
The STB had pencilled in the date after listening to sale objectors on June 16 to 18 and 'taking into account the availability of all parties and the board', it said.
Until that Aug 7 hearing is conducted, the sale cannot be signed and sealed.
The Straits Times understands that the sales committee wanted a date change as the buyers - Frasers Centrepoint and Far East Organization - will not extend the completion deadline.
With no extension, the sale agreement will likely lapse on July 25. This means the developers can walk away from a deal that looks far less compelling now than last July, given souring homebuyer sentiment and escalating construction costs.
However, this might be a blessing in disguise for some owners at the estate. The deal was inked just before the property boom at prices around $430 per sq ft (psf), but private homes in Tampines now go from $550 to $700 psf.
The deadline crunch seems to be of the sales committee's own making.
The conditions of the sales agreement were met on July 25 last year but the committee delayed applying for the standard STB approval until Jan 7.
The committee told the STB that it wanted to await the outcome of legal challenges over the contentious Gillman Heights sale.
The committee argued that if the Gillman Heights sale was halted over issues of majority consent, it would have made a Tampines Court application futile.
In the Gillman Heights case, minority owners appealed all the way to the High Court, claiming that collective sale rules did not apply to former Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) estates.
Tampines Court is also a former HUDC estate so any ruling could have killed its own collective sale.
But Justice Choo Han Teck ruled last month that a privatised HUDC estate can be sold collectively if the requisite conditions are met.
While that also cleared the way for the Tampines Court sale, it left the sales committee with little time to tie up loose ends, including objections by minority owners.
The STB registrar had some sympathy yesterday for the committee's argument about why it delayed applying for sale approval.
But he pointed out that a sale agreement has a deadline and, by waiting for the High Court ruling, the committtee took the risk that it would not have enough time to get a ruling from the board before the expiry date.
'This is a calculated risk, whose consequences they will have to bear,' he said.
'The board should not be pressured to accommodate a deadline set by the applicants and the buyer.'
A lawyer acting for the minority owners told The Straits Times that he did not want to comment on the outcome.
The one lifeline for the majority owners would be if the buyers extend the deadline but that also looks a lost cause.
Far East Organization and Frasers Centrepoint told The Straits Times last night that they are ready to complete the deal, but 'the onus was upon the vendors to secure the STB order within the agreed timeframe, which is about 16 months from the date of the agreement'.
Savills director of marketing and business development Ku Swee Yong said since the deal was inked last July, construction costs have escalated a lot faster than mass market property prices.
'The project, unsurprisingly, has become less attractive,' he said.
Tampines Court is a sizeable 702,162 sq ft site with 560 units. It could be redeveloped into a new condominium with around 1,580 units averaging 1,300 sq ft.
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Key proceedings
March 25, 2007: Tampines Court's sales committee enters a sale and purchase agreement with Far East Organization and Frasers Centrepoint.
July 25, 2007: The conditions of the sales agreement are fulfilled.
Jan 7: The sales committee applies to the Strata Titles Board (STB) for sale approval and the minority owners then file their objections.
June 16 to 18: The STB hears the objections and sets the next hearing for Aug 7.
June 30: The sales committee applies to bring the Aug 7 hearing forward to before the sale's July 25 expiry date.
July 11: STB dismisses the sales committee's request.
Tampines Court owners file appeal
http://www.straitstimes.com/Money/St...ry_258132.html
July 16, 2008
Tampines Court owners file appeal
They are seeking to convince STB to bring forward a key hearing date on collective sale
By Jessica Cheam
ANGRY owners at Tampines Court have opened up two fronts in their battle to save their estate's $405 million collective sale.
One bid saw the sales committee lodge a High Court appeal to overturn a ruling by the Strata Titles Board (STB), while some owners made a direct plea to National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan.
The 10 or so owners went to a weekly Meet-The-People session on Monday night to voice their concerns to Mr Mah, the MP for the Tampines ward.
The Straits Times understands that Mr Mah, in his capacity as a local MP, has agreed to appeal to the STB on the owners' behalf to bring forward a crucial hearing date.
The timing of that hearing - scheduled to let some sale objectors have a say - is also at the centre of the sales committee's legal appeal.
The committee wants the High Court to overturn an STB ruling on when the hearing should be held.
The board said on Friday the hearing should go ahead as planned on Aug 7.
The date, however, comes after the sales agreement legally expires on July 25. If the hearing is held on Aug 7, the sale cannot be done as scheduled on July 25, effectively killing it.
Two sales committee members said in an affidavit filed on Monday that the STB failed to take into account that any hearing after July 25 'will be academic', as the sales agreement would expire and the buyers were unlikely to extend the deadline.
The buyers - Far East Organization and Frasers Centrepoint - have already said they 'are ready to complete the deal', but 'the onus was upon the vendors to secure the STB order within the agreed timeframe'.
The estate's tight deadline stemmed from a sales committee decision to delay lodging its application for STB approval of the sale until Jan 7 this year although all the necessary conditions had already been met as early as July 25 last year.
It told the board that it wanted to await the outcome of legal challenges over the contentious Gillman Heights sale, as this could have a bearing on the fate of the Tampines Court deal.
As it turned out, the High Court last month cleared the way for the Gillman Heights deal and, in so doing, removed any potential obstacle to the Tampines Court sale as well.
Some owners told The Straits Times that they felt this deadline mess was the STB's fault.
Madam Irene Cheang said it was the board's duty to see the sale through within the six-month guideline, and that it had been inefficient in processing the sale.
STB registrar Bryan Chew stood by the board's decision on the date of the hearing.
The time needed to get a sale approved depends on a variety of factors, including the number of objectors, the size of the estate and the complexity of the case, he said.
'This is not the first time that we've taken more than six months,' he added.
The STB said it had pencilled in the Aug 7 date after listening to sale objectors from June 16 to 18 and 'taking into account the availability of all parties and the board'.
It has become a nerve-wracking time for the owners, as many have committed themselves to other properties.
Owner K. Balasubramaniam, 55, said residents could lose about $200,000 should the sale fail. He said the average open market value of a typical unit was $500,000 - while each owner would get about $700,000 should the sale go through.
Lawyers for the majority and minority owners declined to comment.
The Straits Times understands that there will be a High Court hearing this afternoon. It will be closed to the public.
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Hope in sight for Tampines Court sale?
http://www.straitstimes.com/Money/St...ry_260111.html
July 22, 2008
Hope in sight for Tampines Court sale?
Majority owners' last-ditch bid to push through collective sale may bear fruit
By Jessica Cheam
AN ELEVENTH-HOUR bid by the owners of Tampines Court to save their collective sale from petering out seems to be paying off.
The deal was in danger of collapsing after the sales committee delayed seeking mandatory Strata Titles Board (STB) approval for the sale.
The STB had scheduled to hear the case only next month, but the sales agreement with Far East Organization and Frasers Centrepoint expires this Friday. The two property giants do not look keen to grant an extension.
As a result, the sales committee last week applied successfully to the High Court to have the STB hear the case earlier.
At yesterday's hearing, those who objected to the sale had their say, clearing the way for lawyers for majority and minority owners to submit closing statements in writing by Thursday.
The STB had initially set yesterday's hearing for Aug 7, but that would have killed the $405 million collective sale as it would come after the July 25 deadline.
The deadline fix stemmed from the sales committee's decision to delay seeking mandatory STB approval for the deal until Jan 7, although all the necessary conditions had been met as early as July 25 last year.
It wanted to wait until the board had ruled on the Gillman Heights sale. Any ruling could have had a bearing on the fate of the Tampines Court deal as both are former Housing and Urban Development Company estates.
The squeeze on dates became potentially disastrous when the STB dismissed an appeal to bring forward the Aug 7 hearing, forcing majority owners to appeal to the High Court last week.
Lawyer N. Sreenivasan, who represents the minority owners, said yesterday the High Court did not explicitly order the STB to rule by Friday. But the board's deputy president, Mr Alfonso Ang, said it was likely to, in the 'spirit' of the court's order.
Sales committee chairman Mathew Lee, who spent the most time on the witness stand yesterday, was grilled on whether he had acted in the owners' best interests on the issue of the estate's valuation and the method of distribution of sale proceeds.
The lively session also drew a few laughs, particularly when Senior Counsel Andre Yeap, who represents the majority owners, said Mr Sreenivasan was 'highly intelligent', to which the latter interjected: 'No, I am not.'
Resident Niamh Choo, who also took the stand, told The Straits Times later that one of the minority owners' biggest concern was that some of the proceeds would be distributed unfairly.
In his closing statement, Mr Yeap said there was insufficient evidence that the sale lacked good faith.
Mr Sreenivasan will make his closing statements to the board today.
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Tampines Court sale dismissed
http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2...ry_261207.html
July 25, 2008
Tampines Court sale dismissed
By Jessica Cheam
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The sale has caused much tension and division in the estate, with some upset residents complaining that the process has dragged on for too long. -- PHOTO: INTERNET
THE en bloc sale of former HUDC estate Tampines Court failed on Friday after the Strata Titles Board dismissed its sale application.
The board said it had examined the evidence and found that the sale was not concluded in good faith.
It said it will release its grounds of decision at a later date.
The Board's decision effectively means that the sale of the estate is off.
That is because the sales committee's agreement with the estate's buyers - Far East Organisation and Frasers Centrepoint Properties - also expires on Friday and the buyers have previously indicated they will not extend the agreement.
The sale has caused much tension and division in the estate, with some upset residents complaining that the process has dragged on for too long.
The majority owners feel the sale price - about $700,000 for each unit - is above what the homes could get on the open market.
But minority owners believe the amount is too low, given that private home prices in Tampines have shot up in the last year.
An independent analyst, Savills' director of marketing and business development Ku Swee Yong, said fair value is likely from $500,000 to $700,000.
Tampines Court is spread over a sizeable 702,162 sq ft site with 560 units. It could be redeveloped into a new condominium with around 1,580 units averaging 1,300 sq ft.
