Public Housing culture shocks I experienced

We recently got engaged and bought a HDB flat in the resale market🥰

In a short span of 2 months staying over periodically in a public housing flat (as I haven’t officially moved over yet), here are some culture shocks i experienced after partially “moving out” of my parents’ home.

🏡: It’s crowded and there’s a loss of “exclusivity”. The lift, centralized rubbish chute and void deck is shared by quite a lot of people and “sharing” is normalized and a given. I guess I’m starting to understand why people love “exclusivity”. It would be nice to take the lift and shoot up the stories right to the doorstep without stopping 3 times 🥹 It would also be nice to be able to go on relaxing walks around the neighbourhood without having to avoid PMDs, cyclists, and tons of walkers every few steps. Crowded high density areas will generally feel less zen.

🏡: It’s so convenient. Because of the high density, there are also many pros because amenities are aplenty! I’ve never stayed in such close proximity to a coffeeshop, supermarket and public transportation before and I’m loving it despite the cons of above point 😂

🏡: You are very affected by what your neighbours do. You can hear your neighbour flushing/ bathing, walking, dragging their chairs and smell cigarette smoke if they are smokers. Sometimes, it could even be incense or pungent cooking. Unfortunately, one of my neighbour’s house has an “acidic” smell and sometimes it even wafts into my house if I open my windows for ventilation.

🏡: Higher risk of inconsiderate neighbours affecting you. Most unfortunately again, my neighbour upstairs feeds pigeons 💀. I thought there’s enough public education that pigeon-feeding is bad? Their poop is unhygienic, they are a nuisance, and it’s disrupting the beauty of the eco-system?! In public housing, we are all so intertwined. Wanna feed pigeons, whatever. But their bird feed falls into my service yard and attracts pests 😭 And I don’t appreciate an army of birds flocking to my service yard every evening for free food. Tbh, quite a scary sight.

🏡: Less sunlight in the house: I love bright spaces and sunlight is proven to lift moods. I noticed that our place is significantly darker and has much less sunlight due to uncontrollable factors such as smaller windows and doors. My partner noticed i kept wanting to switch on the lights because it’s “too dark I cannot see”😂. I am pretty used to full length windows and I do miss having ample sunlight. (but opening windows also = risk of unwanted smells). Being in such a high density area means less fresh air since it’s being shared by more. I love ventilating my spaces, and this is just something I have to take note of because ventilating the house doesn’t always mean fresh air now.

🏡: Can we please APPRECIATE the govt support for public housing?! I’ve never qualified for any grants before, but I’m reaping the full benefits of being a Singaporean with our 4-room flat now 😆 More grants, yes pls! 🙏🏼 E.g. $300 climate voucher for HDBs only!

🏡: Flyers and advertisements being pasted everywhere in your estate. I guess being “public” gives the government the rights to feed you subliminal messages in the lift lobby, in the lift, every vacant wall…. In a private estate, this is “trespassing” and “vandalism”. I find it pretty unsightly, but i guess these announcement are also a public good. My bird-feeding neighbour def needs more “public education”.

🏡: The terrifying cockroach escape after fumigation 😭 The first time I came down after fumigation I legit jumped out of my skin. I guess this is why Town Council needs to give residents a heads-up on fumigation (above point makes sense now…) The whole lift lobby and void deck was crawling with half-dead roaches and some even went into the lift!!! But I would still take fumigation over pest infestation anytime.

🏡: The lack of (or non-existing) security also takes some getting used to. The fact that anyone can take your lift and walk all the way up to your door gate in public housing sometimes scares me. One time, we were doing housework and I left my gate unlocked for more ventilation. A stranger suddenly popped her head in to ask for donations and caught us off guard. I felt slightly violated at how strangers can easily pop by, and made more effort to keep our doors locked thereafter. The concept of how the corridor is “public space” did take some getting use to.

‼️Disclaimer: my experiences are not meant to be representative of what public housing is like for others. This is my personal experience moving from an ulu private estate to a huge public housing estate. Not all HDBs are made equal, and it’s a rough generalization of an average HDB (which we stay in now) 😀

‼️Disclaimer 2: I love my new place, and this post is meant to shed insights from a different perspective. Pls don’t send hate if you don’t relate 🥲

I thought quite long about whether to do such a post as it can be quite a controversial opinion. But just hoping people can be open-minded about it, as this post isn’t seeking to offend anyone.

May do a Part Two after I move in and make more observations. But let me know if any of you guys can relate! 🤗