‘Brand new BTO, Westscape Bukit Batok, yet this is the state of our estate’ — Resident on wall cracks & water leakage in public housing

SINGAPORE — A Singaporean resident shared a video of a huge crack along a carpark wall of a supposedly new BTO estate on Tuesday (Jan 31). “This is a brand new BTO, Westscape Bukit Batok carpark wall,” the resident wrote. “We don’t even have all neighbours moved in yet and this is the state of our estate,” the resident added.

The resident then urged, “Please help us share (this with) all Singaporeans. We have had neighbours with water leaking from (the) ceiling during heavy rain… we have terrible plumbing such that water pressure is super weak. And this crack now just makes it so much worse.” The eight-second video followed the crack along the wall.

Some netizens responded by questioning the alleged disconnect between how much Singaporeans pay for BTO flats and the quality of the estates.

In a brief exchange in the comments section, one netizen said “Cheap quality awarded…to cheapest contractor.” Another replied, “Everything cheapest, but flat price still expensive.” The post author replied, “Because (the) government wants to earn money.”

Another urged the netizen to inform the Member of Parliament. “That is what I did. HDB has to reply and TC repaired many, many things.”

“Make sure they hack first before (they) re-do the work or else they will just quietly paste outside and cover the crack only,” another netizen reminded. (These people (are) asking (for) so much money but give cheapskate quality…”

Still, one asked, “Wait, how much is our HDB again?”