Lessons on BTO Floorplans

We’ve secured a Q no. for the bto, now what??

Apart from all the admin details (which are plenty!), the next important step is how to select your unit when you’re called down to the HDB office!

⭐️ DON’T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES WE DID ⭐️

We were foolish & thought that HDB BTO flat layouts couldn’t vary very much so we did not do much research into it.

So our selected unit, while it has a nice view (which was a priority yes), has other inconveniences that would be a headache few years down the road as we are planning for Reno.

🏢 LEARN HOW TO READ A FLOORPLAN

By understanding basic symbols! The most important being walls, doors, windows.

• Walls: structural ones can’t be hacked so if you want to open up spaces, this is important

• Doors: HDB provides the main door and gate, as well as service yard folding door.

The rest depends on your Optional Component Scheme! If you opt out, there’re things that wouldn’t come installed with your flat & you get a slight discount when booking.

The actual components vary from project to project though.

For us we opted not to have OCS—internal doors, sanitary fittings, living room+bedrooms flooring because we knew we would want to choose our own designs and not have to waste time hacking the existing ones away during reno

• Windows: some people might be particular about this, sliding windows can’t be opened completely. But casement windows may be tedious to clean & maintain.

Even bathroom windows can vary a lot! Top hung windows in bathrooms aren’t commonplace now.

But this isn’t really within your control 🤣

🏢 THERE ARE MANY WAYS A SINGLE TYPE OF BTO UNIT CAN DIFFER EVEN WITHIN THE SAME PROJECT

Until last year, we thought that all 4 room units in the same project would be the same!

As you can see from the examples I’ve annotated, there are a gazillion ways that the same 4 room flat BTO layout can vary.

Funnily I also noticed that the units in my project with the nice nature view had the “worst” layout (of course this is subjective). I say that because we have closed kitchens and weird structural wall placements resulting in many potential dead spaces!

(You should have access to the info leaflet or sales information of the bto project on the HDB portal so go download it and study it once you got a Q no. before heading down to the unit selection appt!)

🏢 CONSIDER WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO YOU

Granted, you may be waiting a few years for your flat, but it helps to start thinking about whether you may need all the rooms intact, prefer to cook often or not, whether you’d want to have bigger wardrobe space / living space etc.

We didn’t consider much, so sadly we didn’t have the option of having an open kitchen or a kitchen island as dry pantry.

We also didn’t realise the awkward structural wall placement which meant we couldn’t open up the last bedroom to expand living area space too.

Our current layout choices had to work around all of these restrictions. It’s not impossible to make something less ideal work with smart space planning & a thorough planning during the renovation stage.

But bear in mind that hacking and constructing carpentry is going to be the most expensive part of the renovation!

Hopefully you won’t make the same ignorant mistake that we did in your BTO journey! 🥰

Share similar unit selection tips / regrets with me if you have any!

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For more details on reading a HDB floor plan, check out: HDB My Nice Home Guide

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