A SMALL property firm that snapped up enough sites to place it among the top en bloc players last year has put off completing two deals while it ties up funding.

Because of the delays, owners at one condo are still waiting to pick up cheques for well over $1 million each. They expected payment in late February but an extension put this back to March and now the due date is late this month.

The payments are pending from Bravo Building Construction, a relatively new firm on the property scene. It bought freehold Pender Court condominium in the Telok Blangah area for $80 million last July and soon after purchased Tulip Garden near Holland Road - also freehold - for $516 million.

But completion of both deals seems to have stalled.

Completion is at the final stage of the sale process and triggers the final payment - usually around 95 per cent of the purchase price - to owners. The remaining 5 per cent is paid when the owner vacates.

These headaches for the owners come amid a slowing market for collective sales. The first quarter this year saw just one relatively small deal, compared with some 25 notched up in the same period last year.

The Tulip Garden transaction is expected to be completed late next month but Bravo has already asked for two postponements - first to July 23 and then Aug 7.

It has also asked for extensions to pay an additional 5 per cent of the purchase price - $25.8 million.

This is a routine payment required once the Strata Titles Board approves a sale. An initial 5 per cent deposit was paid when the sale was done.

The deadline for the second 5 per cent payment was March 13 but Bravo won approval to move it to April 7. Then in mid-March, it again asked to move the date, this time to May 5.

However, before the sale committee could respond to the request, it is understood that Bravo asked again to have the date moved even further back, to June 7.

Tulip Garden sold for about $1,018 per sq ft. It has 164 units comprising 96 flats, 66 maisonettes and two shophouses. Flat owners stand to reap $2.5 million to $4.2 million while maisonette owners will receive about $3.4 million each. The shop units will get about $1.1 million each.

The owners are meeting this weekend to consider Bravo's requests that the completion date be pushed back to Aug 7 and the deadline for the $25.8 million payment be extended to June 7.

The Pender Court deal is even further behind schedule.

Bravo was supposed to have completed the sale on Feb 25 but had it postponed, initially to around mid-March. It then asked for a further extension to April 24, which has apparently been granted.

Pender Court's 48 owners should each get $1.6 million or so for their flats, which sold for about $872 psf.

Sources have told The Straits Times that they understand Bravo is committed to completing the two purchases and just needs more time to arrange funding.

Bravo, which was registered in 2002, reportedly picked up $824.5 million worth of en bloc sale deals last year, making it the fourth-largest buyer of en bloc sites.

Bravo's directors could not be reached for comment, despite numerous telephone calls and a visit to its office in an industrial building in Geylang Road last Friday. A Bravo staff member said that the company directors were away on business.

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