school
Macau Periodical Index (澳門期刊論文索引)
- Author
- Teo, Keang Sood
- Title
- Collective sales as a legal instrument of urban policy in Singapore
- Journal Name
- Universidade de Macau : Boletim da Faculdade de Direito = 法律學院學報
- Pub. Info
- 2015, No.37, pp. 115-125
- Keyword
- Collective sales；Urban Policy
- Abstract
- Abstract : The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is the national land use planning and conservation authority regulating and facilitating the physical development of Singapore. Every five years, the URA will issue the Master Plan to guide the development of land and property in Singapore over the next 10 to 15 years. Some sites are assigned higher plot ratios, which meant that the land in question could be used more intensively. It would defeat national objectives if changes reflected in the URA's Master Plans cannot be translated into better utilisation of scarce prime land resources to meet a growing population. Collective sales of strata developments by majority consent was thus introdcued in 1999 to help achieve this objective, among others. Difficulties were encountered in this regard prior to 1999 as unanimous consent was required then. A single recalcitrant unit owner could block a sensible collective sale or even blackmail other unit owners as the price of his cooperation. One or two die-hards may veto an eminently reasonable proposal to dispose of the whole strata scheme or demand consessioiins to which they are not entitled. In a strata scheme of any size, it was highly, if not virtually, impossible to obtain unanimity amongst unit owners. Furthermore, society as a whole has an interest in the termination question to the extent that the statutory requirement then may make it all but impossible to terminate schemes which have outlived their usefulness as acceptable housing schemes and thus open the way for the creation of slums. In addition, the development potential of the lands in question could not be maximised. That the collective sale regime, as a legal instrument of urban policy in Singapore, has achived the objective of creating more housing units in prime areas and rejuvenating older developments can be seen in the fact that since 1999, almost 70% of developmnets for collective sale were more than 20 years old. The average age of all developments which applied for collective sale between January 2005 to August 2007 was 25.9 years which is indicative that the collective sale process is being used for urban renewal in line with the national objective of maxmising scarce land resources in the public interest. In addition, between 2005 and 2009, of the 462 collective sale transactions, almost half, or 217, are being redeveloped or had been redeveloped. These 217 developments originally had 11,994 strata units but after redevelopment, the resulting new developments will have more than 26,000 strata units, more than doubling he number of strata units. Paragraph Headings: 1. The collective dale process 2. Erosion of property rights? 3. Balancing the competing interests in a strata scheme 2.1. Requisite consent level 2.2. Formation of collective sale committee, etc 2.3. Mandatory general meetings 2.4. Signing of collective sale agreement in prasence of advocate and solicitor 2.5. Cooling-off period and notice of rescission 3. Factors to consider in application for collective sale 4. Some areas for reform 5. Conclusion