‘Did you regret your BTO choice after staying there due to the people?’ Former Yishun resident who now lives in the west calls it ‘ghetto’

SINGAPORE: A local Reddit user wanted to know if anyone has regretted their choice of BTO after living there for some time due to what goes on in the surroundings.

u/SALEGOOS wrote on r/askSingapore on Friday (Aug 11) that he had applied for a BTO in the west side of the country in 2015 since at that time, new developments were mostly in Punggol or Sengkang, areas that he did not favour so much.

And because the west side was being touted as the next CBD (central business district), he decided to move there.

Eight years on, while he likes the area, the people’s behaviour is something he’s having difficulty with.

He then listed a few of the problems he has encountered, such as very serious high rise littering, dog poo… everywhere, from staircase to shelter areas and even on grass, neighbors who are unruly or verbally abusive, sing karaoke till late at night, scream and fight, with police sometimes needing to be called in.

He added, “The latest case, some druggie caught by police and it was reported in the news. I’ll probably get downvoted and flamed to oblivion for this, but I told my wife immediately after reading the news. Are we staying in a ghetto?”

He now feels that he unknowingly “onboarded into problematic estate and it’s making feel really uncomfortable.”

Having lived in Yishun, he says that it is not even as crazy as where he lives now.

He plans to move eventually, and ended his post by writing, “I’m going to state something really nasty but I stand by it and some might agree with me, that estates that are generally more expensive serves as a poverty barrier and naturally you will observe less of such unruly things happening in such close proximity around where you’re staying.”

/TISG

Couple throws things on HDB neighbour’s air-con ledge cos they didn’t like her smoking; smoker then sues them $60,000 for trespassing & nuisance