What If Your Building Was Sold Without Your Consent? Singapore’s En Bloc Sale

Imagine you bought a home from a developer, furnished it, settled in, and then one day the news arrives: “the whole building is being sold.”

Your first reaction would probably be: “But I don’t want to sell my home.” What if the building is sold anyway?

In Singapore, there is a mechanism that makes exactly this possible. It is known as an En Bloc Sale, or Collective Sale.

How the process works

In simple terms, the homeowners in the same development can collectively sell the entire property, including the land beneath it, to a developer or investor.

Here is the surprising part. If the required majority of owners agrees (under Singapore law, 80 percent for older developments) and the legal requirements are met, the sale can proceed even if some owners do not want to sell.

What happens to the owners who said no?

Every owner, including those who objected, receives their share of the sale proceeds. In some cases the collective sale delivers a higher return than selling individual units separately, because the developer is not buying one apartment; it is buying the whole plot.

The developer, meanwhile, may demolish the block and build something new and larger, or put the land to whatever use makes economic sense for that location.

The lesson for us

Ethiopia has no such mechanism; your home cannot be sold without your consent. But the Singapore example teaches something bigger about what you are actually buying when you buy property: the value is not only in the walls. It is in the land beneath them and the location around them.

So when you buy, do not only ask “what does this home look like today?” Ask “what will this location be in ten or twenty years?” A home bought in the right place is not just a roof. It is an investment.