EN-BLOC SALES

EN-BLOC SALES

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(Government agencies' ability to cope with increased demands): **

26.

Mr Gautam Banerjee asked the Minister for National Development in view of the significant increase in en bloc sales, whether Government agencies such as the Strata Titles Board are able to cope with the increased demands being made of them and maintain service levels and response times for applications and appeals from the public.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: Section 92(9) of the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act provides that a strata title board shall make a final order or determination within six months from the date it is constituted. In the first eight months of 2007, the Strata Titles Boards (or STB) received a total of 60 applications relating to en bloc sales, compared with 43 applications

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received in the whole of 2006. Of the applications received this year, 32 had been concluded and these were done within five months. Only one exceptional case had to be extended as an earlier date for the hearing could not be scheduled as the Counsels for both the applicants and respondents were involved in other matters in the Courts. The remaining applications were received in the recent few months and are being processed.

The Land Titles (Strata) (Amendment) Bill, which will be read the Second time in Parliament this afternoon, will seek to increase the number of Deputy Presidents and panel members that can be appointed to the STB. This will allow more boards to be constituted to deal with applications even more expeditiously.