La Fiesta, a 810-unit leasehold condominium in Sengkang is built by EL Development (ELD), is in the news recently for the wrong reasons.

The condo residents are upset over a stew of defects, which includes water seepage, just months after moving in La Fiesta, which received its temporary occupation permit (TOP) in May.

Only last year, ELD was in the news after the owners of the Trivelis flats in Clementi complained of shoddy workmanship and poor design for their Design, Build and Sell Scheme flats. This even prompted one buyer of La Fiesta to seek assurance from ELD that La Fiesta would not face the same fate.

It seems that even the assurance from the developer's managing director Lim Yew Soon has not prevented the history from repeating itself at La Fiesta.

- See more at: http://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore-news/new-condo-residents-upset-over-defects#sthash.OzIiD9ml.dpuf

1. Cabinets and shelves  showing signs of wear and tear within 3 months. 

 2. Cracked bathroom tiles 

3. Ponding in parts of the units

1. Water seepage, which led to stained walls, damaged furniture and wood rot

2. Poor quality of materials used, which led to deep indentations made by furniture on the flooring

Image from eldev

Extracted from ELD website

Corporate Profile

"EL Development Pte Ltd first started as a small business unit within one of Singapore's leading builders, Evan Lim & Co. Pte Ltd. In late 2006, the company achieved success in its first high end residential project, Rhapsody on Mount Elizabeth, with the project selling out in merely 6 weeks. In early 2007, the company launched its first industrial development, Nordix, a multi-user strata titled terrace factories in Woodlands, and also achieved excellent results with the project sold out within a period of 2 months. As the unit grew in stature, the management decided that there is a need to create a recognizable branding to focus on property segment. Hence, the business unit, EL Development Pte Ltd was officially incepted as a separate company and property arm of Evan Lim Group in June 2007."

Mission

"To create optimised living and work spaces through constant innovation, efficient design, and delivery of high quality products so as to bring true value and satisfaction to our clients."

It is worth nothing that based from the profile, the company seems to define success as how fast their projects are sold out. Usually, a well located project gets sold out and this has nothing to do with the project's quality.

In addition, it is worth to note that based on its track record for Trivelis and La Fiesta, ELD has failed its mission not once but twice!

What is CONSQUAS?

 CONSQUAS - CONStruction QUality Assessment System, introduced in Singapore since 1989, is a standard assessment system on the quality of building projects. This defacto national yardstick for the building industry is regularly fine-tuned to keep pace with changes in technology and quality demands. The 8th edition was launched on 31 October 2012 with focus on design and materials that support both high quality and productivity.

In short, CONQUAS is a score that benchmark the quality of the finished building the contractors delivered and it is used in the UK and Hong Kong.

CONQUAS score for Trivelis and La Fiesta

Only the CONQUAS score for Trivelis is published. The results for La Fiesta should be out in a few months time. Trivelis project has only achieved a score of 87.1 and the contractor that is responsible for the actual project is the parent company, Evan Lim & Co Pte Ltd.
Image from bca

To put things in perspective, The Premiere at Tampines achieved the lowest CONQUAS score of 72.7. These are some of the defects highlighted by a resident of this DBSS project, CELINE CHENG. The subsequent project by Sim Lian Ptd Ltd, Parc Lumiere was the second lowest scorer.