I got my desired BTO unit on the first try. Here’s how.
My friends have balloted countless times with no success. Now, I’ll tell you how I beat 9,000 applicants to secure my dream home!
By Lim Yan Xin • 5 minute read“Do you want to BTO with me?”
This is perhaps the most Singaporean way of telling your partner you want to move on to the next stage with him or her, and we are no exception to it (Hur… So unromantic…).
Housing issues are the greatest concern for many couples in Singapore. Once my partner, Jeremy, and I agreed on getting a BTO flat together, the next most important question to us was where we wanted to stay.
As his parents and mine stay in the city area, there was no doubt that we would highly prefer BTO projects there — in fact, it’s safe to say this is the only area we were looking at.
Shortly after Jeremy popped the golden question, we saw an upcoming project located just a stone’s throw away from my parents’ house. It would be close to the MRT station (Green line! Yay!), and there would be two supermarkets and many eating places nearby.
Yes, this was it. Our dream house. No other upcoming BTO project would fulfil our criteria as most of the land there have already been occupied. We had to chope a unit there!
But as most couples would know, BTO projects in mature estates are highly sought after — there could be up to 15 applicants balloting for one unit!
How could we ensure our success since there would be many others vying for a spot?
We thought we’d have a better chance than most because my parents’ house is located near the project we’re looking at, which meant we got one extra ballot. But when we clicked into the HDB website to check the total number of applicants, we got a shock.
We were competing against 9,000 applicants!
Suddenly, the extra ballot didn’t seem enough, and we could find no other way to increase the probability. To us, it seemed like everything depended on “luck.” Hence, we believed we could only rely on a greater power.
As Buddhists, we know that everything obeys the law of cause and effect. We had to create the cause — by gaining more merit — so that the chances of the effect — getting our unit — coming into fruition would be higher.
The thought of seeking help from the Triple Gems arose.
Right before the start of the application, Jeremy and I started chanting three rounds of the Green Tara mantra religiously every day and supplicated our merit to the success of our ballot. We also thought of why we wanted the house so badly and how we could give back if we were to successfully get a place.
One day, Jeremy was chatting with a senior at BW Monastery and mentioned about the BTO. She suggested for us to go to the actual site of the BTO project and purify the land (洒净).
Oh, this was getting interesting! We knew we had to perform purification for the land when we were building BW Monastery, but for BTO as well? Well, no harm trying, right?
So, Jeremy and I decided to make a Dana offering — i.e. offer food to the Sangha — because they form part of our fields of merit (福田门). This means that by performing good deeds towards them, we are able to accumulate abundant merit. We also asked the monastic community at BW Monastery if there were daily necessities they would need, and then we made those grocery purchases for them as an offering too.
There are deities protecting this land.
On the day of the Dana offering, one Venerable gave Jeremy and I a kind of pre-marital counselling session in Buddhist version (it was so interesting!). He asked us why we wanted this place, and guided us on how we should set our objective/s when supplicating for the house. Here are the pointers we remember from this session — hopefully, they would be useful to you!
Do not supplicate with the sole intention of getting the unit. We should harbour a bigger aspiration. The greater the good you wish for, the easier the “smaller” good (i.e. getting the unit) will be obtained;
Send blessings to all who eventually get to stay there, wishing them happiness and good health;
Send blessings to all sentient beings there as well (not just human!). Who are these beings?
Insects: When the construction begins, many insects will lose their home or get killed in the process. Pray that they can quickly evacuate the area and find a safe place to live;
“Gods/Protectors”: They are the ones protecting the piece of land and most people would not know that they need merit too!
Pray to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva (地藏王菩萨) for property-related matters.
We told the Venerable that we would be going to perform purification of the land at the BTO site. So, we got a bottle of mineral water and added some mani pills (摩尼丸) and willow leaves to it. The Venerable gathered the group of Sangha members to chant 108 times of the six-syllable mantra (“om mani padme hum”) together, keeping in mind the above-mentioned intention, to “bless” the bottle of water. Then, we went to the site to sprinkle the blessed water along the perimeter of the BTO project (the area had been cordoned off to prepare for development) as we continued to chant the six-syllable mantra. When we were done, we dedicated merit to all sentient beings.
Jeremy and I did not slack off after that special day. We continued to chant two rounds of the Green Tara Mantra and one round of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva’s name daily until the day we got to book our unit at HDB Hub.
To feed your curiosity, our queue number was 530 out of the 663 available units. However, we were still afraid that we would not get our desired unit due to the ethnic quota.
Thankfully for us, the dropout rate was relatively high (about 30%) and eventually we got our desired unit!
This was a great learning experience for both of us as we clearly saw the immediate effects of what we have been learning at BW Monastery. It made us realise the importance of relying on the Triple Gems and to put in the right and conscientious efforts to achieve our goals.
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