SINGAPORE: Mandarin Gardens has failed in its en bloc attempt, about a month after raising its asking price to a record S$2.9 billion.
The leasehold condominium managed to gather around 68 per cent of signatures as of Mar 24 when its collective sales agreement expired - about 12 per cent shy of the 80 per cent mandate required to launch a tender.
In a message to owners on Sunday (Mar 24), the site's collective sale committee (CSC) said: "This being our first attempt at collective sales, we have learned valuable lessons which will certainly be very helpful in our next journey.
"A similar attempt in 2008 came to a close, as we were about to appoint the marketing agent and lawyer. At that point of time, the worldwide financial crisis was triggered by the collapse of the Lehman Brothers.
"The general feeling is that the current market sentiment for en bloc sales is heading south as evidenced by the non-bidders in the tender process of several large estates."
The 1,017-unit project first raised its asking price from S$2.479 billion to S$2.788 billion last November, after owners found that the land parcel it was sitting on was undervalued by more than S$300 million.
The CSC again raised the reserve price by 5 per cent to "better help achieve the 80 per cent consensus required", it said in a letter to owners on Feb 21.
"The CSC would like to thank all the approximately 70 per cent subsidiary proprietors who voted for the collective sales and hope you will continue to support the effort when the next round of en bloc sales is launched, hopefully in the not too distant future," the committee said.
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/mandarin-gardens-en-bloc-bid-grinds-to-a-halt-after-failing-to-11376212
Such a stupid statement. They raised the price and yet still a whopping 32% of owners refused to sign up. Clearly the 32% could not care less if "the current market sentiment for en bloc sales is heading south" or whatever direction. The truth does not centre on price but rather on the fact that so many retirees, who in their 60s and 70s living there cannot be bothered to relocate in their twilight years, because doing so might constitute tremendous physical hardship. There have been instances of elderly owners dying whilst moving house. Such is the strain.
Hopefully folks will be less greedy if the next round of en bloc sales ever happens.
The En Bloc ship has already sailed no thanks to the cooling measures implemented by Lawless Wong. :P