En bloc supporters at High Point (centre) are making a fifth collective sale attempt, after Shun Tak Holdings withdrew from its purchase in December 2021 (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
In recent years, several high-profile en bloc transactions have collapsed at the last moment, despite initially looking like done deals. For property owners, these reversals can mean dashed hopes, legal uncertainty, and years of waiting in limbo.
Notable examples include High Point, where Shun Tak Holdings withdrew in December 2021; Far East Shopping Centre, where Glory Property Developments backed out in April 2024; and High Street Centre, where the transaction fell through in October 2024 after the buyer, an offshore entity, failed to pay the remaining 1% deposit and stamp duty on time.
“It can be an emotional roller-coaster ride for owners; success one moment, disappointment the next,” says Lee Liat Yeang, senior partner at Dentons Rodyk’s Corporate Real Estate practice.
Read also: Loyang Valley sold en bloc to SingHaiyi-led consortium for $880 mil
Having advised on numerous en bloc transactions for both collective sale owners and developers, Lee notes that buyers often pull out for a variety of reasons. These include unmet conditions required for the deal to proceed, changes in market conditions affecting pricing expectations, and new property cooling measures that impact the project’s potential profitability.
Uncertainty looms over Thomson View’s collective sale with its High Court hearing scheduled for May 22 (Credlt: ETC)
Uncertainty now looms over the collective sale of Thomson View, after the Strata Titles Board issued a stop order in March due to objections from minority owners.
Last November, a joint venture between UOL Group and CapitaLand Development announced plans to acquire Thomson View en bloc for $810 million.
In light of the stop order, Thomson View’s collective sale committee (CSC) has applied to the High Court for approval, with a hearing scheduled for May 22.
“Regardless of whether objections are later withdrawn, once a stop order is issued, owners must apply to the High Court for an order of sale,” explains Alan Tan, partner at Wee Swee Teow LLP, the law firm acting for Thomson View’s collective sale.
ETC (formerly Edmund Tie & Co), the project’s marketing consultants, declined to comment.
The 59-unit, freehold High Point sits at the top of Mount Elizabeth (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
For the owners of High Point — a 59-unit freehold condominium perched atop Mount Elizabeth — Dec 22, 2021 was the date Hong Kong-listed Shun Tak Holdings was expected to make a 5% downpayment to complete the en bloc purchase.
Read also: Elias Green eyes third collective sale attempt, with a lower price of $883 mil
After the tender closed on Dec 8, Shun Tak, controlled by billionaire casino magnate Pansy Ho, had emerged as the buyer. The bid price was $556.7 million, translating to a land rate of $2,626 psf per plot ratio (ppr), based on the site’s gross floor area of 226,815 sq ft.
The following day, on December 9, Shun Tak announced plans to redevelop the site into a luxury residential project. Its bid was slightly above the reserve price of $550 million or $2,508 psf ppr when the project was launched for tender.
However, the developer later backed out, forfeiting the $1 million tender deposit. Industry watchers believe the decision was prompted by the new property cooling measures that came into effect on Dec 16, just one week before High Point’s scheduled completion. The changes included a hike in additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) for foreign buyers from 20% to 30%, and for developers, from 30% to 40%, including a non-remittable 5%.
The aborted deal marked High Point’s third failed en bloc attempt. Savills relaunched the site for sale on March 31, 2022, at the same guide price of $550 million, but no buyer emerged when the tender closed in July.
Panoramic view from the rooftop of High Point (Photo: Albert Chua/EdgeProp Singapore(
High Point’s collective sale process was revived in 2023–2024 with ETC as the marketing agent. This marked its fourth try, which failed by the slimmest of margins.
“We were just one unit short of achieving the 80% owners’ consent,” said Swee Shou Fern, executive director of investment advisory at ETC, in a letter to the owners dated March 26, 2025.
Read also: Frasers Property bags The Centrepoint rear plot for $391.9 mil in en bloc sale
ETC also informed owners that the collective sale agreement had expired the day before (March 25, 2025), having secured 78.69% consent by share value and 78.81% by strata area.
In a follow-up letter on April 11, ETC noted that several owners had expressed regret that the threshold was missed “by a hair’s breadth”. Some have since proposed initiating a fresh collective sale attempt, notes Swee. When reached, she declined to comment.
As this would be High Point’s second try within a two-year window from March 25, the Land Titles (Strata) Act requires that at least 50% of owners — by share value or number of lots — requisition an extraordinary general meeting (EOGM) to restart the process.
That 50% threshold is understood to have been met in the first week of May, ahead of the EOGM scheduled for May 24.
High Point is within walking distance of Paragon and Orchard MRT Station, now an interchange for both the North-South and Thomson-East Coast Lines (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
Still, not all owners are on board. Some are holding out due to concerns over replacement cost. Based on Shun Tak’s offer in 2021, owners of the four-bedroom units would have received gross proceeds of around $9 million each, while the two penthouse owners would walk away with about $18.8 million each.
In the most recent failed collective sale attempt, the reserve price was set higher, with gross proceeds of around $9.5 million for the owners of the four-bedroom units. However, several owners still felt it was insufficient to afford a comparable replacement property in the same area.
Many High Point owners are foreigners, notably Indonesians who bought their units before the latest cooling measures. If they were to sell and purchase another residential property in Singapore today, they would be subject to a 60% ABSD rate that came into effect in April 2023.
Some owners have held off on major renovations since the collective sale process began in earnest back in 2017. After eight years of uncertainty, some have grown weary and decided to proceed with renovations.
In fact, the last transaction at High Point was in March 2017, when a 2,885 sq ft, four-bedroom unit on the eighth floor changed hands for $4 million ($1,387 psf).
Completed in 1974, the 22-storey High Point comprises 57 four-bedroom apartments measuring 2,885 to 2,928 sq ft and two duplex penthouses measuring over 6,300 sq ft, each with a private pool.
The development sits on a 47,606 sq ft freehold site in prime District 9. While tucked away in an exclusive enclave, it is within walking distance of Paragon and Orchard MRT Station, now an interchange for both the North-South and Thomson-East Coast Lines. The area is also near top schools such as ACS (Junior), ACS (Primary), and St Margaret’s Primary.
Owners of High Street Centre were disappointed when a potential deal fell through last October, but they are likely to make another collective sale attempt as the lease runs low (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
For High Street Centre owners, the collective sale launched in May 2024, at a reserve price of $748 million, marked their second attempt.
When the price was subsequently reduced by 9.4% to $678 million, more than 80% of the owners still agreed to proceed.
The buyer, a foreign fund comprising offshore high-net-worth investors from the US, Europe, and India, requested a five-week extension to meet the regulatory deadline. However, the deal ultimately collapsed in early October 2024, when the buyer failed to pay the balance 1% deposit and ABSD by the due date.
“It was disappointing for the owners when the sale fell through,” says Christina Sim, senior director of capital markets at Cushman & Wakefield, who handled the sale. “Once the dust settles, the key proponents of the collective sale will try to drive it through once again.”
Cushman & Wakefield has managed High Street Centre’s two collective sale attempts. The first was in June 2020. The development is a 29-storey mixed-use building at 1 North Bridge Road. It sits on a 60,299 sq ft, 99-year leasehold site with a gross plot ratio of 7.72 and a total gross floor area (GFA) of 466,085 sq ft. The site has just 43 years remaining on its 99-year lease from 1969.
Sim believes the owners should press on. “People need to understand that when a collective sale fails, it’s not anybody’s fault — it’s either the market conditions at the time or the price,” she says. “It’s important to look beyond this failed attempt.”
Far East Shopping Centre: SDI scheme the deal-breaker
For the owners of Far East Shopping Centre, a 298-unit, strata-titled mixed-use development along Orchard Road, the en bloc deal collapsed in April 2024, seven months after a buyer emerged at the close of the tender conducted by CBRE in September 2023.
The buyer, Glory Property Developments, pulled out of the $908 million transaction after failing to obtain approval from the URA to redevelop the property under the Strategic Development Incentive (SDI) Scheme.
The SDI would have granted the developer a 20% uplift in GFA. However, one condition of the scheme was that the site be redeveloped in tandem with at least one neighbouring property.
Had it gone through, the sale of the 999-year leasehold Far East Shopping Centre would have been the largest collective sale since Pacific Mansion was sold for $980 million in 2018.
It has been a year since the aborted transaction — the first collective sale attempt by the strata proprietors of Far East Shopping Centre. “Some former collective sale committee members are sounding out interest on the ground to see if they can restart the process,” says a source.
The site may still be redeveloped into a new mixed-use project. However, without SDI approval and the corresponding bonus GFA, the reserve price will likely need to be revised downward.
The 774-unit One Pearl Bank is a redevelopment of the former Pearl Bank Apartments, successfully sold on their fourth collective sale attempt (Photo: Samuel Isaac Chua/EdgeProp Singapore)
“Many developments go through numerous collective sale attempts before achieving success,” says Lee of Dentons. Tanglin Shopping Centre, the former Tulip Garden (now the 638-unit Leedon Green), and the former Pearl Bank Apartments (now the 774-unit One Pearl Bank) were all successfully sold on their fourth collective sale attempt.
The mixed-use development Peace Centre and Peace Mansion was successfully sold en bloc in December 2021 to a joint venture between SingHaiyi and Ultra Infinity for $650 million after five attempts. The site is now being redeveloped into a new mixed-use project, One Sophia and The Collective at One Sophia, which will include 367 residential units.
The road to a successful collective sale is often long and fraught with setbacks, but past examples show that persistence can pay off. For many owners, the en bloc dream remains alive — even if it takes four, five, or more attempts to get there.
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