Collective Sale of Shunfu Ville Approved by High Court
Qingjian Realty, a property developer, finally saw a breakthrough in their quest as the High Court approved for them to by the Shunfu Ville estate as a collective purchase.
According to Strait Times, two of the owners who were against the collective sale were present in the court. However, they were nor represented by lawyers. The case was not concluded with a written judgment but the court has provided an appeal period of 30 days to the objecting parties. On the other hand, Qingjian was represented by the senior partner of Dentons Rodyk and Davidson. Lee Liat Yeang, who is the senior partner, stated that this is a step ahead in the collective sale market as it has not seen reasonable progress in the past few years.
The collective sale of the Shunfu Ville estate was announced in May 2016. At that time, 82% of the owners of the estate had agreed to sell the privatized Housing and Urban Development Company estate to Qingjian Realty as a collective purchase. The estate is based on 358 units and each flat owner was to receive an average of $1.782 million after they had agreed to reduce the reserve price. The reserve price was lowered from $688 million to $638 million.
However, Qingjian soon hit a hurdle in October 2016. Five owners from the estate expressed their disapproval of the collective sale. Owners are allowed to file an objection against the sale even if the required percentage by the sale committee has voted in favor of the sale. The owners can object on the grounds of similar nature to financial loss. As a result, the sale can only be allowed after an approval by the High Court.
As mentioned earlier, two of the objecting owners were present in the court at the time of approval whereas the other three had been reported to take back their objections against the sale.
The managing director of Qingjian Reality, LI Jun has expressed the sentiment of happiness from the company as the High Court has decided in their favor. According to him, the company is still going to wait 30 days before taking any tangible action on the property in case the opposing parties file an appeal. However, Li Jun stated that they are already considering designs for the estate and examining the plans of the upcoming Shunfu condo.
In the case of no appeal, Qingjian Realty will officially be the owner of the Shunfu Ville estate and can start the work as they may have planned. Kenneth Szeto, who is a partner at the law firm known as Colin Ng and Partners, says that appeal may be based on single point of law or combination of laws and facts decided by the High Court.
Upcoming New Launches
The Shunfu condo is named as Jadescape and will be launched for sales in 2nd half of 2018
