Horizon Towers owners in no hurry for a collective sale
While the number of collective sale sites on the market continues to grow, Horizon Towers may have to wait a bit longer before it could join in the frenzy.
This comes as the collective sales committee, which started gathering signatures in November last year, is finding it hard to achieve the requisite 80 percent approval.
In fact, only one signature was added to the 55 percent of the owners consenting to the sale was collected during the one-hour signing session held on 30 January (Tuesday), reported Today Online.
Minutes of the sales committee meeting held on 24 January showed that owners of 116 units, representing 55.38 percent in strata area and 54.88 percent in share value, had agreed to the sale as of that day.
One of those present at the Tuesday signing session noted that achieving the 80 percent mark may prove to be a difficulty, given that owners in the development are “very rich”.
“Getting an additional $1 million or 2 million (from the en bloc sale) may not make much of a difference to them… The progress of signing has also been slow because many owners are based overseas,” said the man, who refused to be identified.
He revealed that some may have “en bloc fatigue” from the lengthy legal battle years ago.
Notably, the 212-unit development was on the verge of being sold in 2007 for $500 million to a Hotel Properties-led consortium. A group of minority owners, however, contested the sale, resulting to the sale being overturned by the apex court in April 2009.
Property analysts, on the other hand, believe the owners are waiting for a more “enticing” price.
“The price probably has to go higher as owners are also looking at replacement value. They will only agree if what they are getting can buy a property of the same size not far from where they are, in this prime district,” said Nicholas Mak, executive director of ZACD Group.
“I suspect that a number of units in Horizon Towers could be owned by foreigners and therefore it is difficult to get their signatures… Some owners who have rented out their units could also not be in a hurry to sell and are waiting for others to sign first,” added Chris Koh, director of property firm Chris Koh International.
This article was edited by Keshia Faculin.
