• The Mandarin term “共管式公寓” is a paraphrase of the English term “condominium”.
• Condominiums are usually gated developments with security guards controlling access. Most are also built with recreational facilities such as swimming pools, barbecue pits and tennis courts.
• Homeowners with a strata title would jointly select the management team for their shared facilities, and pay their share of the management fee in proportion to the property area they own.
• When housing prices soared in the early 1970s, many middle-income families, who were ineligible to buy Government flats as their income exceeded the stipulated limit, found themselves with insufficient capital to buy private landed property. The then Urban Renewal Department thus began floating the idea of condominiums.
• The condominium concept was later implemented by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which was officially set up on 1 April 1974. Pandan Valley, built in Ulu Pandan in 1977, was a pilot project at that time, designed to have comprehensive shared facilities.
• As housing prices continued to rise, Singapore enacted a law in 1996 to introduce Executive Condominiums (EC) so that more middle-income families could afford housing with private condominium facilities. Purchasing a newly built EC requires a minimum occupation period and at least one of the owners to be a Singaporean citizen or Permanent Resident.

Responding in parliament to a verbal inquiry by a Member of Parliament yesterday regarding the Government’s Executive Condominium scheme, the Minister likened the EC plan of allowing families to realise their wish of owning a private condominium to buying a luxury Lexus sedan for the price of a Toyota Corolla. (Lianhe Zaobao, 15/1/2013)

共度住宅 (Taiwan)