# Residents unite against en-bloc sale after 3 of 6 units sold to developer and friends last month
# New owner then rents out unit to fereign workers while waiting for en-bloc sale
THE banner on the gate - with the bold red words 'No To Enbloc' - is quite hard to miss at Springwell Mansions.
And the message is quite clear.
Put up by a group of residents who are fed up with what seems to them to be intense interest from a developer, the sign is to tell others that the rest are not interested.
The group - living in the six-unit private estate - put it up last month to make their intentions known.
The banner cost them $60, they said.
Right now, their development is split right down the middle when it comes to considering a collective sale.
Three of the units there, or half the project, were hurriedly snapped up last month.
Fearing a majority takeover - five out of the six unit owners need to approve a sale - the residents of the three remaining units quickly called for an extraordinary general meeting (EOGM) to decide on the en-bloc possibility after that.
And all the three owners who attended the meeting last month voted against the sale.
One of the new residents, who sent a proxy, couldn't vote because he missed the deadline to register the proxy.
This 23-year-old freehold development is located near Upper East Coast Road near Bedok Camp.
Its land area is about 22,000 sq ft big - about the size of seven basketball courts.
Mr Siegfried Stettmayer, who is also the chairman of the management committee there, said he was surprised by the sudden interest in the estate.
He said: 'All three units were sold quite quickly and in such a short span of time.
'We don't want an en-bloc sale because this estate is quiet, safe and it's hard to find a unit of such size in this area. And we've great neighbours here too.'
Mr Stettmayer, a vice-president of sales at a business consulting firm, bought his 3,200 sq ft place for about $690,000 in 2004 and spent more than $200,000 renovating it.
The units there are three-bedroom types at 3,200 sq ft or 1,600 sq ft big.
The peace of the estate was broken by what the residents saw as an intrusion when a group of related buyers started snapping up the units there in October.
One large unit was sold for $1.4million and two smaller units were sold for $1.1m and $950,000 each, which is the current market rate, property agents said.
The $950,000 unit was sold to Springlife Holdings director Lee Boon Kwan, and the other two properties were bought by his friends.
Springlife is a small property developer.
One resident there, accountant Foo Siew Lan, said: 'What are these new buyers trying to do? They are obviously not buying to live here. Are they trying to buy us one by one or trying to force an en-bloc sale?'
She bought her 3,200 sq ft place for $738,000 five years ago.
To make matters worse, one of the smaller units was rented to foreign workers recently.
While they do not disturb the peace of the neighbourhood, some of the residents are clearly unhappy about strangers living among them.
Ms Foo said: 'I see different groups of workers here every night. They are generally peaceful but I just don't feel safe with strangers streaming in and out of the estate every night.
'And who would buy a $1m property here to rent out to foreign workers?'
By renting out to foreign workers, the landlord has also broken a by-law in that estate.
This by-law states that owners are to rent out to family units only (no boarders and foreign workers).
This by-law was passed in June this year to ensure a comfortable, safe and pleasant living environment, the residents said.
When contacted, Springlife's MrLee claimed he did not know about the by-law and had just found out about it.
His friend, a contractor, had bought a unit and is temporarily renting it out to foreign workers.
Mr Lee said there is no point in his friend renting a place elsewhere to house his workers when he has a vacant place of his own for rent.
He added: 'Anyway, that's a temporary thing. He'll probably sell it if there's no enbloc in the future.'
He and his friends had invested in the three units there because of what they thought was an en-bloc opportunity.
Mr Lee said in Mandarin: 'I thought that this place had the potential for an en-bloc sale, so I decided to buy a unit.
'I also persuaded two of my friends to buy too. But now that the residents have voted against the sale, we're stuck with the properties.
But he added that because he bought his unit 'at a fairly low price', he can 'still sell it at a profit' if there is no collective sale.
He said that his friends' units were bought at a slight premium, so they may not be able recoup their losses if they sell on the open market.
For now, the anti-enbloc banner makes matters worse.
Mr Lee said: 'With that sign outside, how can I sell my place now? Who will buy a unit here now if they think that there's no en-bloc opportunity?'
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