Sarah Chen
Braddell View residents have taken the first formal step towards a fresh collective sale attempt, voting to form a collective sale committee at an extraordinary general meeting on 19 September (CNA, 28 September 2026). The vote came 11 days after Parliament passed the Land Titles (Strata) (Amendment) Bill, which lowers en bloc consent thresholds for older developments. With 918 homes on a 1.14 million sq ft hilltop site off Braddell Road, the former HUDC estate is the first large-scale test of whether a ten-point drop in the threshold changes outcomes or just changes the conversation.
Thresholds are set by development age, and consent must be met on two bases at once: share value and total strata floor area.
| Development age | Consent required (share value and strata area) | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Under 10 years | 90% | Unchanged |
| 10 to under 40 years | 80% | Unchanged |
| 40 to under 60 years | 70% | Down from 80%; applies to Braddell View |
| 60 years and older | 65% | Down from 80% |
At about 45 years old, Braddell View falls in the 70% band. Because consent is counted by share value and floor area rather than by headcount, the cut doesn't translate into a fixed number of owners. If every unit carried equal weight, it would mean about 92 fewer consenting units. And because both tests must be passed, the lower bar helps most where holdouts own the larger units.
The same bill makes the process tighter:
The amendments also aren't in force yet. They take effect on a date the Minister will set in the Gazette, and most of the new rules apply to estates that haven't collected their first signature by then. So the committee has a reason to wait for the new law to start before collecting signatures.
Braddell View was privatised in 2017, after an 18-year process to harmonise the leases of the two plots it sits on. It went to tender twice in 2019 with a reserve price of S$2.08 billion, or S$1,199 psf per plot ratio. That reserve included an estimated S$795 million for the premium a developer must pay the state to redevelop the site and top up its lease. Both tenders closed without a single bid.
That's the real test for this attempt. A lower threshold makes it easier to put a sale on the table. It doesn't make a developer more willing to pay what owners are asking.
A bigger site commands a bigger land bid, but a bid this size narrows the field to the largest developers or consortiums. It also means more owners to align on the two decisions that sink most attempts: the apportionment method (how proceeds are split between unit types) and the reserve price. HUDC-origin estates have wide unit-size ranges. Splitting proceeds by share value, by strata area, or by a blend produces materially different outcomes per household, and each option creates its own bloc of objectors.
The lease is the other live variable. Braddell View's 102-year lease began on 1 February 1978, leaving about 53 years. That shrinks as the process runs, and a shorter lease raises the premium a developer must pay to top it up, which in turn caps what any bid can be.
With the committee now formed, it appoints a marketing agent and lawyers, then puts the apportionment method and reserve price to the estate. Only then does the consent period open. Under the new rules, signatures must be gathered within six months of the first one. If the threshold is met, the sale goes to the Strata Titles Board for approval, where objections are heard. From the first committee meeting to completion, two to three years is normal. Signing the collective sale agreement commits you, but owners who don't sign are only bound once the threshold is met and the sale is approved.
A collective sale is not a windfall; for owners who didn't consent, it's a forced sale. Every owner pays off the existing mortgage and refunds the CPF they used plus accrued interest. Most then have to buy again, older and with less time left to borrow.
All figures below are illustrative. Assume gross proceeds of S$2.0m per unit, an outstanding loan of S$250,000 and a CPF refund of S$450,000. Free cash is S$2,000,000 less S$250,000 less S$450,000, or S$1,300,000.
Where the CPF refund lands depends on age. For owners 55 and above, it first tops up the Retirement Account to the Full Retirement Sum (S$220,400 for those turning 55 in 2026), and only the remainder goes to the Ordinary Account. Assume a 55-year-old whose Retirement Account is empty because their savings went into the flat. S$220,400 goes to the Retirement Account, where it pays out as monthly income from age 65, and S$229,600 goes to the Ordinary Account, where it can go towards the next purchase.
Now the replacement: a resale condominium at S$2.2m, buyer aged 55. Under MAS rules, a 75% loan-to-value (LTV) ratio requires that the loan not run past age 65, so the maximum tenure at that LTV is 10 years. Stretch to 20 years and the LTV falls to 55%.
At 75% LTV, the loan is S$1,650,000 over 10 years. At an illustrative 2.5% a year, the instalment is S$15,555 a month. Banks must assess affordability at MAS's 4% medium-term interest rate floor, where the instalment is S$16,705. That needs gross monthly income of about S$30,374 to fit within the 55% total debt servicing ratio (TDSR).
At 55% LTV, the loan is S$1,210,000 over 20 years. At 2.5% the instalment is S$6,412; at the 4% floor it is S$7,332, requiring about S$13,332 of gross monthly income. The cost is a larger downpayment: 45% of S$2.2m, or S$990,000. Using the S$229,600 in the Ordinary Account leaves S$760,400 to pay in cash. With the Ordinary Account used up, the buyer's stamp duty of S$79,600 is also paid in cash. That leaves S$460,000 of the original S$1.3m, plus S$220,400 locked in the Retirement Account.
So the proceeds are real, but the financing and CPF rules, not the sale price, decide whether a replacement home is affordable. Owners past 55 should run the tenure, LTV and CPF numbers before voting on a reserve price, not after.
The lower threshold raises the chance of a sale, and prices in ageing estates will reflect that. Paying a premium for that chance is a bet on three things: apportionment being settled, a reserve price that still works for a developer after the lease top-up premium, and the Strata Titles Board not being held up by objections. The new rules add a fourth risk: if an attempt fails, owners must wait three years before trying again. Check whether a committee exists, what the last attempt reached, and whether it failed on consent or on price. Those facts tell you more than any asking price.
Trendale Tower on Cairnhill Road is being marketed for its fourth collective sale attempt at a $168 million reserve, now with the option to redevelop it as a Serviced Apartment 2 (SA2) scheme instead of a conventional condominium, since three prior strata-sale attempts failed to clear. Whether $168 million works depends on the land rate per square foot per plot ratio, which has not been disclosed, and SA2's different economics (yield on cost rather than strata sell-down) may offer a viable path where the condo case did not.
Sarah Chen·18 Sept 2026
Sarah Chen·17 Sept 2026© 2026 Cashew. All rights reserved.
