May your New Year be a QUIET and PEACEFUL one!

With sincerest apologies to all, ever since returning from my break in mid-Dec, I've been bogged down with tons of emails and getting work ready for the start of 2008. I've only (I think!) finally caught up with the latest news on enbloc sales, my enbloc emails etc. Thankfully, Pariah's been updating her blog regularly and it's always a joy to read her take on enblocs, especially her views on collective exchanges.

Over the Christmas period, I've been thinking a lot about the 'spirit of giving' that seems to be the rhetoric around that time. For those of you who have had your estates sold, I'm sure you would have experienced a barrage of unsolicited mails and phone calls to get you to:-

• Buy a new car (Had special personal invites sent by BMW, Merc, and a number of other brands)
• Buy a new condo (both personally addressed to me as well as those that spam the entire estate's mailboxes)
• Invest with banks etc etc.

Now obviously a lot of these enterprising chaps who sent the mail to us obtained our names from the advertisements that had to be put out under the old enbloc laws (the ones with all owners' names listed). Thankfully under the new law, that won't happen.

But it got me thinking - there's at least a flood of 600+ millionaires from Farrer Court appearing this year, and that's not including the number of enbloc millionaires existing or who will be getting their money, whether they are for or against the sale. That's a lot of millionaires, and if anecdotal evidence of sale solicitation is anything to go by (I contacted some European car makers to ascertain this), a lot of the brand new SG* cars are bought courtesy of enbloc proceeds.

While I understand that, like lottery winners, the first instinct of any person suddenly flooded with a whole lot of money is to splurge, to indulge oneself or spend on your loved ones, there's something else that millionaires do, that we don't see a lot of in Singapore, I'd think.

The act of philanthropy.

(Or donating money to support a charitable cause.)

Singapore has the fastest growing number of millionaires in the world, and with over 6000 homes sold last year through enbloc sales, there's no doubt more millionaires will appear in 2008. So how's this for a new year resolution:-

GIVE (AT LEAST) 1% OF YOUR SALES PROCEEDS TO A CHARITY OF YOUR OWN CHOOSING.

And by charity I don't mean your own, nor any that starts with BMW, Mercedes, CDL, Far East etc. :P

1% of $2 million+ (if you're a Farrer Court owner) is $20,000. You pay 3-4% to your enbloc sales agent for them to do their work, and you certainly pay as much to your enbloc lawyers. 1% is not a lot relative to these. So please think about this seriously, and do the right thing. I have a while ago.

I'll update the enbloc list and other stuff in due time. May your new year be a calm and peaceful one, for those of you still experiencing the enbloc trauma.

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