I REFER to the letter, 'Apartment owners in this mixed development lose out' (ST, Nov 18). My family is facing a similar but even more extreme situation. In our case, we and 85 other apartment owners are looking at losing our homes if the ongoing en-bloc sale process proceeds.
Our building is a mixed-use development where the apartments make up 40 per cent of the floor area and yet hold only 5 per cent of the share values.
It is ironic and unjust when the residents have by far the least say in whether the building is put up for en-bloc sale while the office and retail landlords whose only interest in the transaction is financial will decide whether the building is sold or not.
Even if all the residents vote against the sale they would be powerless to stop their homes from being sold.
The present system of using share value to determine voting rights in a collective sale needs to be urgently re-examined and a more equitable system devised to protect residential home owners' rights in mixed-use developments. Using floor area to determine voting rights in the collective-sale process would be a more equitable way of deciding whether the sale process goes ahead or not.
Robert Alexander Stone
