If you’re anything like most Singaporeans, you’ve been told a ghost story or two in your time. You might even have had a spooky run-in of your own. If you have, I’m willing to bet the eerie incident didn’t take place too far from home – Singapore is a pretty tiny island, after all.
Even if you aren’t a believer in the supernatural, you can’t deny that these dark legends add character to the city we call home. At the very least, they’re entertaining. Here are 6 of the most notoriously haunted HDB estates, and the stories behind them
Bishan
It’s pretty much common knowledge among Singaporeans that Bishan used to be a massive cemetery back in the day. When the area was eventually cleared to make room for schools and the residential estate in 1982, it’s said that many of the spirits that occupied the graves stayed behind, unwilling to be evicted from their resting place.
Image credit: HDB
Today, residents see these spirits in the form of faceless ghosts while commuting on the MRT or walking home late at night. Still, these ghostly encounters haven’t kept the property value from rising – Bishan is one of the most heavily contested mature estates that regularly sees million-dollar sales.
Toa Payoh
You don’t have to be an 80s kid to have heard about the chilling case of the Toa Payoh ritual murders. In 1981, a medium, his wife, and mistress kidnapped and sacrificed children as part of a satanic ritual. The gory case sent shockwaves through the island when it was first reported, and its horrific legacy remains 40 years later.
Image credit: HDB
Unsurprisingly, the flat in block 12 Toa Payoh Lorong 7 still stands to this day – after all, it’s rather impractical to demolish the whole estate. Today, their spirits continue to roam the blocks. Residents report hearing childlike laughter, assumed to belong to the ghosts of the children whose lives were so cruelly cut short.
Nee Soon Estate
Second only to Pulau Tekong, Nee Soon estate is arguably one of the most haunted estates in Singapore. It’s said to be haunted by Pontianaks – ghosts of women who died during childbirth. These ghosts don’t shy away from making their presence known, for they wait at the doorstep of unsuspecting residents, and pursue those walking in the area, especially around Sembawang Park.
Image credit: @johnsg100
As for why they’ve settled here? Sembawang used to be home to a massive rubber plantation: the Nee Soon Rubber Estate. This meant a whole field of rubber trees, widely known as the favourite hiding spot of pontianaks. Clearly, they’ve made themselves at home as their spirits still remain despite the fact that the estate has long been cleared to make way for flats.
Bedok
Bedok estate is another well-known Pontianak stomping ground – here, though, they call Bedok reservoir home base, leaving it at night to haunt the surrounding blocks, hiding among the trees in dimly lit areas. The blocks in Bedok North are said to be particularly haunted, with many residents reporting frequent sightings of the woman clad in white.
Image credit: HDB
Aside from Miss Ponti, there are other spirits whose stories are just as sad as they are scary. The early 2000s saw a rise in suicides, many of which took place in the area. The spirits of those who passed, including one who was found with his upper body missing, still wander the area today, leading to many a creepy sighting.
Woodlands
Unless you live in Woodlands, you probably only know the area as the estate you pass through on the way to JB, or the place where you took your driving test if you live closer to the West. In 2003, though, the area served as a quarantine site for patients infected with the SARS virus, Singapore’s last pandemic before Covid.
Image credit: HDB
The souls of patients who left the physical world during this time are said to have never left the area – because of this, the blocks remain haunted to this day. Of the haunted blocks, block 852 is said to be especially haunted, leading to most of the units being vacant.
Spooner Road
Lastly, Spooner Road. If you’re well-read on Singapore’s architectural history, you’ll know that the flats along Spooner Road are some of the oldest in Singapore, giving them plenty of time to rack up hauntings. Constructed in the 1970s, the units were used to house those who worked at the now defunct Tanjong Pagar Railway Station.
Image credit: @nrhtdytz
The flats were left unoccupied when the railway station was shut down – in this time, plenty of non-human occupants moved in, and never left. Now used as lower income housing, residents report all sorts of spooky occurrences: unexplained disturbances at night, odd sounds and ghostly apparitions just to name a few.
BONUS: Siglap
Practically all of us have passed through Siglap on our way to the airport – if you weren’t rushing to catch a flight, you may even have stopped to admire the pretty bungalows. The pleasant neighbourhood we see today actually has a pretty dark past. The name Siglap, or Si Gelap in Malay, literally translates to “The Dark One” – talk about spooky.
Siglap SIT flats that still stand to this very day.
Image credit: rememberinghdbestates
The ominous name is said to have originated after the sky mysteriously turned dark in the middle of the day sometime in 1821 – we now know that it was a solar eclipse, but they certainly didn’t – it was the middle of the 19th century, after all, so we can cut them some slack.
The area is also home to the “Valley of Tears”, a mass gravesite where prisoners of war were executed during the Japanese Occupation. Today, their spirits still haunt the estate.
Haunted HDB estates in Singapore
Boom (or should I say boo), the 7 most haunted HDB estates in Singapore, and the story behind how they earned their place on this list. Though we may be used to thinking of Singapore as just our safe, sunny island home, clearly it has its dark side too. From water spirits to Pontianaks, we have our fair share of spooky stuff. Just remember, if you see a lady in a white dress, run.
While you’re here, check out:
- DBSS flats and where to find them
- Racial profiling in Singapore’s rental market
- Jade Seah on shophouse life
- How to decorate your rental apartment without voiding your contract
Cover image adapted from : rememberinghdbestates, qintai
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