Balancing stakes in en bloc deals: Should we raise or lower the bar?

The lessons yielded around building consensus will matter far more when VERS arrives.

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An en bloc sale is one of the few remaining available mechanisms to renew housing stock and recycle scarce land effectively. 

A collective sale is one of the few remaining available mechanisms to renew housing stock and recycle scarce land effectively. 

PHOTO: ST FILE

Christopher Gee

How strong a consensus should we require when it comes to en bloc deals? The answer is that aligning varied and diverse stakeholder perspectives is rarely a neat mathematical exercise. Setting a consent threshold in a collective sale process is ultimately a judgment call. 

Consider the extremes: A threshold set at 100 per cent allows a single holdout to keep hundreds of households in a deteriorating building. One set at just a simple majority leaves dissent with no weight at all. Any number between those two points invariably produces a losing side. 

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