Problem with road

The collective sale of five small estates near Thomson Road seems to have reached an impasse due to a public road. But the owners of 88 units set to keep the $12 million deposit even if the deal is botched.

The deal was inked in November 2007, when a unit of listed developer KSH Holdings signed up to buy Norfolk Court, Mergui Lodge, Northern Mansion, Mergui Court and The Mergui for $120 million.

The deal however hit a snag when the firm tried to buy a 1,000sq m section of a road from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA). The land is needed so that the five estates can be combined to form a larger plot for economy of scale.

However, the authorities had priced the land at $16 million – double what KSH and industry experts had earlier estimated. The property firm has appealed to the SLA to review the price.

If no consensus is reached, the deal will be off, but the flat owners will keep the $12 million deposit as per the sale contract. That works out to about $136,000 on average for each of the 88 units. If the deal goes through, on the other hand, each unit stands to receive between $906,856 and $1,908,491.

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