GOING en bloc is now a more costly and time-consuming business for home owners because of a new set of stricter rules implemented last October.

The rules - aimed at making the process more regulated and transparent - have bumped up the price of organising a collective sale by about 20 per cent to 30 per cent and drawn out the process by a few months, say property consultants.

Most of the higher cost comes from rising lawyers' fees, which have doubled or trebled to reflect a similar increase in workload.

According to one industry source, lawyers 'previously charged maybe $2,000 per household, but now they can charge anything from $3,000 to $6,000'.

Among other things, the new rules now require a lawyer to be present whenever a resident signs a collective sale agreement and to explain the terms of the agreement to each resident during the signing process.

Lawyers may also have to assist the owners in vetting the minutes of sale committee meetings, as well as draft motions for the general meetings, said Ms Tng Peck Chin, the partner in charge of collective sales at law firm WongPartnership.

Another law firm, Rodyk & Davidson, said it has mostly tried to double its fees, although the actual increase varies from estate to estate.

Rodyk partner Lee Liat Yeang said the new rules now double or treble the amount of time lawyers need to put in to get a collective sale going.

'Also, looking at market conditions, prices are already quite high,' he said.

'Lawyers worry that a buyer cannot be found and nothing will materialise from all the effort they had to put in at the initial part.'

In addition to higher lawyers' fees, owners now need to bear the cost of a valuation report for the estate, previously not a requirement, said Mr Karamjit Singh, the executive director of Credo Real Estate, which specialises in collective sales.

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