It is sad to see reports of collective sales making the news again.

At a time when Singapore is trying to build cohesion and unity, having homes sold en bloc is doing just the opposite to communities.

Quite often, the key players in collective sale exercises are non-residents who instigate others to call for an Extraordinary General Meeting (EOGM) to appoint a committee of not more than three persons.

When working on the proposal for the EOGM, they do not make a sincere and honest attempt to get the opinions of the residents in the estate.

The residents in many of these estates have built strong bonds with their neighbours partly because of the untiring efforts of the neighbourhood committees (NCs) and also by taking part in the numerous activities and programmes organised by the residents' committees (RCs).

The NC and RC members, all volunteers, work hard to build a "kampung spirit" among the residents.

In my estate, visitors have even commented on this kampung spirit.

A collective sale might give you money but as the saying goes, money cannot buy happiness.

Tan Yew Hock