Singapore housing market buzzes with return of en bloc sales

Singapore

CHALK up another sign Singapore's housing market is recovering: redevelopment deals are back.

After slowing to a trickle the past three years as housing prices fell, four redevelopment deals - where a group of owners band together to sell entire apartment blocks at a hefty premium - have already been struck this year, with a combined value of S$1.5 billion. The process, also known as "en bloc" sales, allows developers to knock down and rebuild in a city where new residential land sales are tightly controlled by the government.