Termination legislation: Property rights or wrongs?

Abstract

Since achieving independence in 1965, Singapore has experienced rapid transformation from a third-world slum to a first-world city with skyscrapers providing housing to more than five million people. This is attributable to a combination of measures including: dynamic urban planning strategies; across-the-board increases to plot ratio; the lifting of building height restrictions; and reforms to termination legislation, which now requires majority rather than unanimous consent among owners before the sale of a multi-owned development can proceed. This chapter examines the legal intricacies of collective sales associated with termination legislation in Singapore. In particular, the chapter focuses on aspects of termination legislation pertaining to the rights and restrictions of strata title property ownership, and how the courts have strived to achieve a balance between the two.