En bloc sales framework under review by government

Neptune Court, which is located at Marine Vista just off Marine Parade Road, was built in 1975 by the Singapore government as a housing benefit for civil servants and public officers. 

While the 752 units within Neptune Court are held by individual owners, the land and common areas are owned by the Ministry of Finance (MOF).

Around 2010, some residents raised the idea of privatising Neptune Court with unit owners collectively buying the land and common areas from MOF, with the hope of a future en bloc sale of the development.

Financial news outlet The Edge reported that this was the owners’ second attempt at privatisation, following an earlier effort in 2007 when they tried to purchase the large open car park from MOF to enable a collective sale of the entire estate.

However, disagreements later broke out among different groups of residents over issues related to the proposed privatisation of Neptune Court, according to a 2017 court judgment. A lawsuit was filed over the alleged use of association funds by four owners to finance defamation proceedings brought against several other members of the association.

The Neptune Court Owners’ Association also said in its letter that the pro-privatisation committee would consult its legal adviser to prepare for an Extraordinary General Meeting (EOGM) for discuss a potential collective sale.

The pro-privatisation committee also wrote in its letter that it had secured the votes of 29 per cent of the estate’s 752 units to elect a collective sale committee, surpassing the 25 per cent under current Land Titles (Strata) Act guidelines, and it would ramp up efforts to garner more support in the coming weeks.  

In 2017, Singapore saw robust sales in the en-bloc market with 31 deals totalling S$8.5 billion, while there were 36 deals amounting to S$10.3 billion in 2018.

However, recent years have seen a significant decline and stagnation in collective sales activity. Several condominium en bloc attempts have failed as property market sentiment weakened, partly due to the government’s cooling measures introduced in recent years.