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A Singaporean content creator has sparked a renewed public debate over the fairness of Singapore’s Build-To-Order (BTO) public housing ballot system, after sharing a video on 4 March documenting her 13 unsuccessful attempts to secure a flat over approximately three years.<\/p>\n
The woman, who appears on the TikTok account XinandXuan, said she ultimately abandoned her efforts and purchased a resale flat instead. Her account drew hundreds of public responses, with many viewers sharing nearly identical experiences.<\/p>\n
“I applied for a BTO for 13 times and still did not manage to get a unit,” Chua said at the opening of her video, which has since attracted significant attention on TikTok.<\/p>\n
The video had been viewed over 87,000 times within six days of posting.<\/p>\n
Chua explained that she had applied for a four-room flat at the Bukit Merah Ridge project, one of several developments launched under the Housing and Development Board’s (HDB) current Standard, Plus and Prime classification system.<\/p>\n
Despite applying, she was assigned a queue number of approximately 3,000 \u2014 roughly 2.5 times the number of units on offer. She said she was informed she would be notified should any flats become available during the selection process. No such notification ever arrived.<\/p>\n
Her account took on added significance because she cross-referenced it against published data.<\/p>\n
Referencing a report <\/a>by The Straits Times on muted demand for Plus and Prime HDB flats, she cited figures showing that four-room flats across several projects had approximately 20 per cent leftover inventory, while three-room flats showed considerably higher unsold rates \u2014 around 77 per cent at Ulu Pandan Vista and approximately 39 per cent at a second project.<\/p>\n The Bukit Merah Ridge development itself listed 28 per cent of three-room flats and 16 per cent of four-room flats as balance units.<\/p>\n “If you look at the graph, it showed there were leftover units,” she said. “I understand that sometimes people might select a unit and give it up, but for over 200 units being given up, I don’t think it makes sense.”<\/p>\n Among the most pointed episodes Chua described occurred in 2023, when she was invited to book a flat at a Kallang\/Whampoa project she had balloted for.<\/p>\n On the day of her scheduled appointment at HDB Hub, she was informed she no longer needed to attend, as all four-room flats designated under the Chinese ethnic quota in that area had already been sold.<\/p>\n “We were not getting a queue number, and if we were getting a queue number, it exceeded the allocated number of slots by more than double or triple,” she said, describing what she characterised as a prolonged wild goose chase.<\/p>\n Documentation she shared confirmed at least two formal rejection notices \u2014 one issued in August 2021 and another in February 2022 \u2014 each stating that her ballot position had far exceeded the available flat supply.<\/p>\n In the same year, she visited her Member of Parliament (MP) to raise her concerns. She said the MP advised her only to wait for the ballot results at the end of August 2023, an outcome she described as deeply frustrating given the years already spent in the process. “It was so pointless and tiring,” she added.<\/p>\n Chua was careful to clarify the nature of her frustration. She said she was not seeking preferential treatment based on the number of times she had applied, but rather felt it was unjust that units she had applied for were never made available to her, while published statistics later indicated those same projects had unsold inventory.<\/p>\n “Then who exactly is being called up and who is getting these units we balloted for?” she asked.<\/p>\n She called on the HDB to review the allocation process so that Singaporeans seeking a home could have a fair opportunity. She also offered advice to those still waiting: to set a personal time limit on BTO applications and to seriously consider the resale market if they continued to be unsuccessful.<\/p>\n “Honestly, BTO remains the best option and if we were ever given the opportunity, we would definitely go for a unit. But I guess we gotta settle and appreciate what we have,” Chua concluded.<\/p>\n Chua’s video emerged against the backdrop of shifting dynamics in Singapore’s public housing market.<\/p>\n According to The Straits Times, demand for certain Plus and Prime flats has softened notably since the new classification system was introduced in October 2024.<\/p>\n In the February 2026 BTO sales exercise, all first-time buyers of three- and four-room flats in Kim Keat Crest, a Plus project in Toa Payoh, were effectively assured the opportunity to select a unit \u2014 a situation that would once have been unusual in a mature estate.<\/p>\n The same exercise offered some 4,320 balance flats for sale, exceeding HDB’s initially committed supply of 3,000 units. The Straits Times reported that 22 Prime or Plus BTO projects were among those offering balance flats, with at least 13 projects recording undersubscription in at least one flat type.<\/p>\n In a written parliamentary reply on 25 February 2026, National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat said HDB currently holds close to 900 unselected flats from previous Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercises.<\/p>\n Property analysts attributed the softening demand in part to the stricter resale conditions attached to Plus and Prime flats, which include a 10-year minimum occupation period (MOP) and a subsidy clawback mechanism. These conditions were designed to reduce speculative purchasing in desirable locations and limit what analysts have described as a “lottery effect” \u2014 whereby owners of flats in sought-after areas could realise substantial profits upon reaching the usual five-year MOP.<\/p>\n Despite this broader context of softer demand, applicants at specific projects in areas such as Bukit Merah and Kallang\/Whampoa \u2014 the very projects Chua had applied for \u2014 continued to face queues exceeding available supply for certain flat types.<\/p>\n The video prompted a voluminous and largely sympathetic public response.<\/p>\n One commenter said she and her husband had twice received appointment dates to select a flat in Yishun, only to be informed the day before each appointment that the relevant quota had been reached. She expressed frustration that the same units subsequently appeared in the following SBF exercise, rather than being offered to the next applicants in the queue.<\/p>\n Another commenter said she had applied 25 times across multiple towns over ten years before finally securing a two-room flexi unit in Woodlands. Another commenter said he had applied 18 times before succeeding. Several others reported reaching double digits before obtaining a flat.<\/p>\n A commenter described a successful strategy that involved persistent follow-up with HDB officers and assistance from MPs in two separate Group Representation Constituencies (GRCs), one governed by the People’s Action Party (PAP) and the other by the Workers’ Party (WP). She said the process, while exhausting, resulted in securing a flat within a year.<\/p>\n Others drew a distinction between applicants who had balloted exclusively for popular central locations and those who had spread their applications more broadly.<\/p>\n Some suggested that choosing less-subscribed projects in towns such as Tengah, Woodlands or Sengkang significantly improved the chances of success. A male commenter noted that he succeeded on his first attempt by selecting Tengah.<\/p>\n Several commenters raised the role of ethnic quotas in explaining the gap between published balance unit figures and individual applicants’ experiences. One observed that units apparently available as leftover inventory might have been reserved for applicants of specific ethnic groups, consistent with HDB’s Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP).<\/p>\n A number of commenters called for independent auditing of the ballot system, with one describing it as excessively opaque and another calling for HDB to deploy technology to reallocate surrendered units more efficiently.<\/p>\n Some questioned whether the income ceiling or proximity to family considerations had contributed to Chua’s difficulty in obtaining a flat, citing the various priority schemes available to certain applicants.<\/p>\n Others were more pointed, alleging that newly naturalised citizens had skewed demand in ways that disadvantaged long-term residents, though such claims were not substantiated with evidence.<\/p>\n Some viewers questioned whether 13 attempts over approximately three years was arithmetically possible, given that BTO exercises are held roughly three to four times a year.<\/p>\n With BTO launches alone, three years would yield at most nine to twelve exercises. However, HDB also conducts separate Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercises, in which unsold units from earlier launches are offered to applicants.<\/p>\n The HDB had not publicly responded to the specific concerns raised in Chua’s video at the time of publication.<\/p>\n Chua’s frustrations were not without precedent at the institutional level. Parliamentary records show the issue had been raised formally on at least three occasions between 2023 and 2025, with the government’s position on the core reform she sought made explicit as recently as February 2025.<\/p>\n In January 2023, then-Member of Parliament Cheryl Chan Wei Ling asked<\/a> the then-Minister for National Development Desmond Lee how many first-timer applicants had tried more than four times between 2017 and 2022 without success, and what proportion had subsequently turned to the resale market.<\/p>\n Lee’s reply revealed that between 2017 and 2021, approximately 2,200 first-timer families had been unsuccessful after more than four BTO attempts. Of these, 99 per cent had applied exclusively in mature estates. Around 14 per cent subsequently purchased a resale flat \u2014 a pattern that closely mirrors Chua’s own trajectory.<\/p>\n The data predates the current Standard, Plus and Prime classification system introduced in October 2024, and the landscape has since shifted. However, the figures establish that persistent failure in mature estate applications was a documented, systemic pattern well before the current classification regime.<\/p>\n The government’s response at the time was to encourage applicants to consider non-mature estates, where additional ballot chances are provided to those with two or more prior unsuccessful attempts.<\/p>\n Critically, this additional weighting applies only to Standard flat applications in non-mature estates. Applicants who had focused on mature or prime locations \u2014 as Chua had \u2014 were not covered by this provision.<\/p>\n In September 2023, Workers’ Party MP Sylvia Lim pressed the matter further<\/a>, asking whether the Ministry of National Development would consider adjusting the ballot system to accord weightage to the total number of prior unsuccessful attempts across all exercises, including the Sale of Balance Flats (SBF), regardless of location.<\/p>\n Lee’s reply acknowledged the government’s commitment to helping first-time buyers but did not extend the additional ballot weighting to mature estate or SBF applications.<\/p>\n Instead, he announced a new First-Timer (Parents and Married Couples) category, granting three ballot chances from the outset to families with a child aged 18 and below, or married couples aged 40 and below buying their first home. The September 2023 exchange took place at the same time Chua was navigating the later stages of her own application process, meaning the policy debate was active and unresolved while she was still in the queue.<\/p>\nAppointment cancelled on the day<\/h3>\n
A call for greater fairness and transparency<\/h3>\n
Muted demand and growing balance flat supply<\/h3>\n
Widespread public response<\/h3>\n
Parliament had already flagged the problem<\/h3>\n