AN ALTERNATIVE to queues and the 'first come, first served' principle at property launches is emerging as developers turn to ballots to allocate flats in an increasingly active market.
A ballot was used amid tumultuous scenes at the Optima condo on Thursday night when buyers swamped the Tanah Merah showflat a day before it was due to open.
It was also employed when two-room flats were released at Somerset condo One Devonshire in June. And Boon Keng condo Airstream is set to launch on Wednesday with balloting.
The process - essentially buyers' names are drawn out of a box - is getting backing from developers and buyers and may become increasingly common as activity gathers pace.
Mr Gerry de Silva, the head of group corporate affairs at Hong Leong, a partner in the Optima project, said balloting is fairer and stops people from trying tactics like selling places in a queue.
'Balloting is more transparent and the crowd can be dissipated faster,' Mr de Silva said. 'We wanted to ensure that genuine buyers come in and that they are not held up for too long.'
In Optima's first balloting round on Thursday night, about 300 buyers vied for the 120 released units that were going for an average of $790 per square foot. All units were allocated.
Buyers in the ballot had to submit one cheque for an individual unit. The most popular unit attracted over 40 ballots. On Friday, a further 156 units were released in the second ballot round. Optima has 297 units.
Property consultants said that neither system was absolutely fairer or better than the other.
Dr Chua Yang Liang of Jones Lang LaSalle noted that both systems were suited to different market conditions. 'Queueing is simpler to execute and is more manageable when the demand is within a certain threshold. But once it is too large, it becomes hard to manage - that's when ballots have to come in, or other alternatives,' he said.
A ballot was used amid tumultuous scenes at the Optima condo on Thursday night when buyers swamped the Tanah Merah showflat a day before it was due to open.
It was also employed when two-room flats were released at Somerset condo One Devonshire in June. And Boon Keng condo Airstream is set to launch on Wednesday with balloting.
The process - essentially buyers' names are drawn out of a box - is getting backing from developers and buyers and may become increasingly common as activity gathers pace.
Mr Gerry de Silva, the head of group corporate affairs at Hong Leong, a partner in the Optima project, said balloting is fairer and stops people from trying tactics like selling places in a queue.
'Balloting is more transparent and the crowd can be dissipated faster,' Mr de Silva said. 'We wanted to ensure that genuine buyers come in and that they are not held up for too long.'
In Optima's first balloting round on Thursday night, about 300 buyers vied for the 120 released units that were going for an average of $790 per square foot. All units were allocated.
Buyers in the ballot had to submit one cheque for an individual unit. The most popular unit attracted over 40 ballots. On Friday, a further 156 units were released in the second ballot round. Optima has 297 units.
Property consultants said that neither system was absolutely fairer or better than the other.
Dr Chua Yang Liang of Jones Lang LaSalle noted that both systems were suited to different market conditions. 'Queueing is simpler to execute and is more manageable when the demand is within a certain threshold. But once it is too large, it becomes hard to manage - that's when ballots have to come in, or other alternatives,' he said.
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