High Court approves Thomson View $810m sale, the biggest collective sale since Chuan Park

The deal had been put on hold on May 22, after lawyers representing the Thomson View collective sale committee made errors in documents. ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH

Grace Leong

UPDATED Jul 01, 2025, 03:43 PM

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SINGAPORE - The High Court on July 1 approved the $810 million sale of Thomson View Condominium – the largest residential collective sale since Chuan Park changed hands for $890 million in May 2023.

Relief broke out among the 30-plus residents and parties related to the Thomson View sale who had packed the courtroom earlier that morning when High Court Judge Audrey Lim allowed the sale to proceed after considering further submissions by the collective sale committee’s lawyers and that there were n o objections from home owners.

The deal had been put on hold on May 22, after lawyers representing the Thomson View collective sale committee made errors in documents, including submitting “incomplete” documents.

A group of six dissenting home owners had filed objections to the Strata Titles Boards (STB), which stopped the collective sale process on March 19 after mediation efforts failed. It is unclear on what grounds they objected to the sale, but all of them had withdrawn their objections by March 29.

Thomson View was sold to UOL, Singapore Land (SingLand) and CapitaLand Development (CLD), after at least 80 per cent of owners – 206 units – agreed to lower their reserve price to $808 million.

This allowed them to accept the $810 million offer, which was below their original reserve price of $918 million.

UOL, SingLand and CLD signed a conditional call-and-put option in October 2024 to acquire the 99-year leasehold development at $810 million. The call option gives the buyers the right, but not the obligation, to purchase the property at $810 million.

On Nov 25, 2024, UOL announced that it had exercised the call option for the purchase. It paid a sum of 5 per cent of the sale price, including the option deposit of $1 million.

Justice Lim also awarded $5,000 in costs to the applicants, plus $3,829 for other expenses incurred.

At a hearing on May 22, Justice Lim had sought clarifications on the number of signatures in the collective sale agreement dated Jan 4, 2024, and the number of signatures in a supplementary agreement. This was to determine if the 80 per cent threshold was met within the one-year stipulated period.

The judge pointed out that all 206 signatures needed to cross the threshold must be obtained within 12 months of the first signature, which meant between Jan 8, 2023, and Jan 7, 2024.

She noted that some of the signatures were signed after that period, in October and November 2024.

She said the affidavit should also set out how many home owners signed the agreement between Jan 8, 2023, and Jan 7, 2024, and how many did so after; and for both groups, the proportion they comprised in terms of shares and plot size .

Madam Lim Choe San, one of the six dissenting parties, who was represented by her daughter-in-law, Ms Chan , told the court that she accepted the judge’s ruling.

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But on behalf of the home owners, Ms Chan asked that the “additional costs for subsequent orders should not be borne” by all the home owners because of errors in earlier documents filed by the CSC lawyers.

CSC lawyer Hui Choon Wai, a partner at Wee Seow Teow LLP, said that her law firm will “not be charging the sole proprietors all subsequent costs after the first hearing”.

“We are personally relieved that this case is closed, so we can get on with our lives. We are happy the case is over,” Ms Chan told The Straits Times after the hearing concluded.

When asked, Madam Lim declined to say why she had withdrawn her objections.

Another home owner, who only wanted to be known as Madam R.A., said the ruling “is as expected. It put certainty to things. We can finally move forward”.

Madam R.A., who has lived at Thomson View for 11 years, said she is getting more than $3 million from the en bloc sale, but has not found a new home yet.

Owners of the 254 apartments and townhouses stand to get between $2.22 million and $4.94 million each, depending on the size of their unit.

The sole commercial unit will receive about $3.87 million from the collective sale, according to marketing agent Edmund Tie.

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