Collective sales of private housing estates, government intervention and the erosion of property rights: The Singapore experience

Abstract

In recent years, many property owners in Singapore have banded together to sell their properties en bloc or collectively to developers for redevelopment. These collective sales, which capitalize on the "marriage value" of the en bloc site, give owners big windfalls as compared to individual sales. Thus, the majority of owners in a building project are keen to sell their interests collectively. Many of these collective sales encountered difficulties, particularly in developments where numerous owners with differing interests were involved. Invariably, there were disagreements with regard to sale price, apportionment of sales proceeds, mode of disposal, etc. As a result, many of these sales stalled due to objection by minority owners. The Land Titles (Strata) Amendment Act 1999 was passed on 11 October 1999 by Parliament with the intention of facilitating such en bloc sales as these will release prime land for higher-density redevelopment to provide more quality private housing in land-scarce Singapore. This paper examines the critical issue of majority rule versus minority rights and shows how the majority vote introduced by The Land Titles (Strata) Amendment Act 1999 affects the property rights of individual owners through the analysis of three case studies. It is found that, generally, the minority owners have very little protection and the property rights of individuals have been adversely affected. Although minority owners in a housing estate could object to the collective sale, many were forced to sell their properties through the majority vote.