Thursday, January 31, 2008

No Go For Regent Garden's En-Bloc Sale

Source : The Straits Times, Jan 30, 2008

ANOTHER collective sale has run into hiccups. The Strata Titles Board on Wednesday dismissed the sale of Regent Garden in West Coast Road after the estate's majority sellers contested its purchase by Allgreen Properties.

The majority owners, who own 25 of the condominium's 31 units, have said they want to be released from the sale agreement. They signed the agreement last April to sell the condominium to Allgreen for $34 million.

Alternatively, the majority owners want damages of between $5.7 million and $6.685 million from Allgreen. According to them, the sale price of $34 million was a 'mutual fundamental mistake', based on a wrongly assumed amount for development charges.

The owners had expected a development charge of $950,000, but the sale proceeds put the charge at $7.2 million.

In addition, the majority owners are unhappy that the minority owners appear to have been paid an extra amount by Allgreen.

Allgreen denied that a mistake was made. It has also pointed out that its bid for Regent Garden was the highest and a good $4 million above the reserve price.

The mainboard-listed developer also said these assertions are 'nothing more than belated attempts to rewrite the bargain in the hope of extracting a higher price for Regent Garden'.

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