Thanks for your responses.
Flame Tree, they are all questions I have asked myself! I am not motivated by money. What I am looking for here is a home. We have some fairly strict criteria, and this place meets all of them – apart from the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen with this collective sale. So . . . bummer.
Jimmy, we have already done the forensics. The only thing that came out of that was the collective sale. I have seen the formal proposal, and there was nothing to suggest the motivation was anything but opportunistic – i.e. to take advantage of zooming property prices in the area. (Though there has been a slow-down since then.)
Anyway, even knowing all of the above, something just doesn’t smell quite right here. The property is reasonably priced, yet has been on the market since January. So there could indeed be something else afoot. I should listen to my intuition, I guess.
The home hunt continues . . .
Cheers.