Their payout is not enough to buy similar-size units in same area due to rising prices

The reason:

Two weeks ago, retiree Albert Ng received $660,000 from the collective sale of his 1,700 sq ft Waterfront View apartment in Bedok.

However, the 65-year-old former port executive is not happy.

‘It’s a miserable price we are selling at, in a bullish market. You can never get the same thing for this price now,’ he said.

With his homemaker wife and daughter, he will downgrade to a 1,000 sq ft apartment in Katong, which costs over $450,000.

Mr Ng is not alone.

In a poll of 40 owners and tenants from properties that are up for collective sale, half of them said they would downgrade when they move out of their homes.

They live in estates such as Sophia Court in Dhoby Ghaut, Nathanville off River Valley Road, The Orange Grove off Orchard Road, Minton Rise in Hougang and Waterfront View in Bedok Reservoir Road.

Similarly, more than half surveyed said they would relocate further into the suburbs.

The main reason? Price.

Many living in the central area - Districts 9, 10 and 11 - said that rising property prices would make it impossible for them to afford a similar unit in the same area with their payouts.

The owner of a ground floor unit at The Orange Grove, who wanted to be known only as Ms Wang, said she would have to move to a more affordable area like Newton or Bukit Timah.

The housewife said her 2,360 sq ft apartment was acquired for more than $4 million. However, a new condo of that size in the Orange Grove area would cost more than $4.7 million in the current market.

She plans to spend two-thirds of the amount she received on a landed property in a cheaper area when she moves out in October.

Likewise, finance manager Kevin Smith, 37, who rents a 1,000 sq ft apartment for $3,000 a month at Nathanville, will be renting a condo in Serangoon. Nathanville was sold in March this year.

He said: ‘I can get a bigger place in Braddell or Serangoon for the same price.’

One in four polled is moving into HDB flats because of the higher prices in the bullish private property market.

A tenant at Sophia Court for three years, Ms Shweta Sharma, 30, will move to Toa Payoh where her office is.

The clinical application support engineer said: ‘Condos in Toa Payoh are very expensive, so I have to rent an HDB flat.’

Currently, she is paying $1,430 at Sophia Court, which was sold last December. Even so, she expects she will have to pay more - around $2,000 - for a three-bedroom apartment in Toa Payoh.

Mr Sharyl Sapa, who sold his Waterfront View maisonette for $660,000, will downgrade from his 1,700 sq ft home to a 1,200 sqft executive apartment in Tampines which costs $300,000 come November.

Many of the people polled - especially tenants - are also unhappy because they have to deal with the hassle of moving.

A 46-year-old tenant at The Orange Grove, who did not want to be named, said that this would be the second time in five years that she has to move because of a collective sale.

‘Something should be done. There is just a mad scramble to look for houses,’ said the housewife.

When The Orange Grove is demolished in October, she will move to a terrace house in Woodlands with a $6,700 lease, up from her current $5,000.

‘Owners are selling, developers are moving in, and everything is happening so fast. It’s not a gradual process - it’s just crazy,’ she said.

To avoid being forced to move after another collective sale, some are not taking any chances.

As Mrs Miharu Mckinney, 34, a housewife renting at Sophia Court, noted: ‘We are now looking for a place that is not older than five years.’

Source: The Straits Times, 16 June 2007