Laguna Park is going for en bloc again after an unsuccessful attempt in 2009.
It reminds me of the residents in two of my properties in the east also tried to go en bloc during the same period.
It all started in mid-2007 when the market was at the hype of an en bloc fever.
Over a few months, everyone — including the management office, the neighbors and the property agents — all mentioned about en bloc. Then one fine day, there’s a letter inviting all subsidiary proprietors (or unit owners) to a Collective Sale Meeting.
The 1st property I bought was caught in the en bloc fever. Personally, I don’t think the sale can go through because:
1) The estate is only 20+ years in age and very well-maintained.
2) There are over 1,000 units. It’s very difficult to achieve even 70 percent of agreement, both logistically and in reality.
3) Many devoted residents have stayed there for many years. It’s almost impossible for them to find an equivalent in location, facilities, unit layout, feng shui, etc.
4) The handful of shop owners may not want to move out for business reasons. Also, they are usually more demanding with compensations during a collective sale.
A few new buyers bought a unit with en bloc in mind. They pressed the resident cheapambienpriceonline.com committee to call for a Collective Sale Meeting with very short notice.
During the meeting, there was heated exchange of arguments between the pro and anti-enbloc camp. Residents who didn’t want to sell their homes became very emotional at times.
Members of the resident committee with many years of good work were wrongfully accused by the Collective Sale Committee of obstructing the en bloc sale.
A bunch of aggressive guys were arguing like kids. Every proposal was difficult to finalize and took unnecessarily long time to go through the voting process.
I attended the 2nd meeting but meetings had a tendency to drag from morning till afternoon. I soon lost the interest to attend subsequent meetings.
There were many unhappy sentiments in the neighborhood. The pro-enbloc owners would spread rumors while the anti-enbloc residents gathered together to organize the ‘I love (the estate)’ campaign.
It was not until the onset of the economic crisis that the Collective Sale Committee finally called off the en bloc initiative.
This was the 1st time I saw the ugly side of an en bloc attempt. Honestly, I am neutral to people who speculate in en bloc sale, provided that they have the patience, use the right means and show respect to people with a different point of view.
As for the few aggressive ones who used unscrupulous means to reach their goal, just imagine how the residents look at them when they walk around the estate.
How much can they profit from a closed deal? $500K? $1 million? $2 million?
There’re many other ways to make the same (or even bigger) amount in property investment. What’s the point of losing one’s conscience just to win the jackpot in a collective sale? How can one ever justify sacrificing one’s integrity for that sort of windfall?
Leave a Reply