Overview
- The Ministry of Law tabled the Land Titles (Strata) (Amendment) Bill in Parliament on Tuesday, Aug 4, proposing to cut consent requirements from 80% to 70% for developments aged 40–59 and to 65% for those 60 and above.
- The Bill tightens how collective-sale attempts begin and run: it raises the requisition threshold to form a collective sale committee to 35% of owners, shortens the signature-collection window from 12 months to six months, and extends the wait after a failed attempt from two years to three years.
- Protections for non-consenting owners are increased by raising the cap on court-ordered awards from 0.25% to 0.5% of sale proceeds per lot (or S$2,000, whichever is higher), and by rules intended to limit repeated pressure on dissenters.
- The regime would also be extended to some long-lease, non-strata residential developments so flat owners holding long leases can pursue majority-consent sales, with safeguards to protect underlying landowners' interests.
- Analysts say the changes could prompt more ageing estates to test the market but are unlikely alone to trigger a broad en bloc boom because developer appetite, acquisition costs, replacement-home affordability, and planning and tax costs will still determine whether attempts convert into completed redevelopments.