I had to downgrade to smaller flat with lower quality of life

Feb 6, 2011
I had to downgrade to smaller flat with lower quality of life
Mr Tan in the Housing Board executive flat in Queenstown that he and his family will be moving into next month, nearly four years after the collective sale started. -- ST PHOTO: MUGILAN RAJASEGERAN

Mr Reginald Tan, 50
Director, married with one son, 11
Former home: Gillman Heights, 1,700 sq ft mid-floor unit bought for $545,000 in 1993
En bloc sale price: $887,000
Now living in: 1,600 sq ft Housing Board executive flat in Mei Ling Street, bought for about $755,000, including cash premium of $30,000 paid above valuation

'I moved into Gillman in 1994 and loved the big open spaces of the estate. My son grew up there and it was the first home for my wife and me too, so we have deep sentiments attached to the place. When the collective sale started, we were hesitant. One of us signed the agreement, the other didn't. Initially we thought we could get at least $1 million from the sale, but in the end it was less.
As the sale dragged on, property prices also increased and we could not afford to buy a similar unit in the area. We also did not want to buy in case the sale fell through.
In the end, we had to rent an apartment at Leedon Heights when it was time for us to move out, and we have stayed there temporarily for more than a year amid unpacked boxes while looking for our home.
Finally, we decided to downgrade to a Housing Board resale flat in the Queenstown area - it's central, but definitely does not offer the same quality of life we had at Gillman. The new condo units are also very small in comparison.
We're finally going to move in next month - almost four years since the en bloc sale started. The past few years have been very disruptive for my family as we moved from one place to another. We have expended a lot of money and effort looking to rent or buy a replacement home, and designing our new home.
I've had to pay almost $50,000 in rental fees, $30,000 cash over valuation for my Housing Board unit and $70,000 in renovation costs.
I still keep in touch with some of the old neighbours, and we meet up once in a while for dinner and drinks at someone's home.
At Leedon Heights, we seldom see any of our neighbours as many units are unoccupied. I would occasionally meet my next-door neighbour in the morning. Sometimes, I have a chat with one of the neighbours there whom I knew at Gillman Heights. The traffic along Farrer Road is also worse than in Alexandra Road (where Gillman was located).
We weren't looking to make any money, just enough to buy a replacement unit - that was my only wish, but it did not work out that way. Property prices shot up so quickly, and Farrer Court, for example, sold a month after us and managed to get more than twice the price. You can't blame us for feeling shortchanged.
It would have been fair if we got a one-for-one exchange for our units in the new project, The Interlace. But even at the preview, we were not given choice units to select from.
I also feel the 80 per cent needed from owners for an en bloc sale should be raised to 90 per cent. There were a lot of people who did not want to move, and we could have upgraded our estate to make it nicer.
Now, our new home is here. I don't foresee any difficulty integrating in our neighbourhood, just that the blocks are more cramped here and we have less space. But I guess we will get used to it.'
http://www.straitstimes.com/News/Home/Story/STIStory_631833.html
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20Feb2011: No benefit from collective sales