The next BTO exercise lands in November 2026 with about 7,960 flats across seven projects in six towns: two in Bedok, and one each in Geylang, Sembawang, Tengah, Toa Payoh and Yishun. It was pushed back a month from October deliberately, because it is the first exercise under the new $16,000 income ceiling and HDB wants applicants to sort their eligibility paperwork first. That paperwork has a hard edge most coverage has buried: if you want to ballot in November, HDB asks for your HFE letter documents by 25 September. And beneath the schedule sits a quieter question, because the extra ballot chances for families with children do not start until February 2027, which changes who this particular exercise favours.
Sources: MND and HDB joint release, 23 August 2026; HDB Flat Portal, retrieved 25 August 2026.
What exactly is launching in November 2026?
Seven projects. HDB’s Flat Portal lists the towns and flat types now, with unit counts and exact locations confirmed at launch. The shape of the offer says a lot before a single price is out: the central and eastern projects run only up to 4-room, while the larger family flats sit in the north and west. If you need a 5-room, your exercise is Sembawang, Tengah or Yishun, full stop. Tengah carries the only 3Gen flats, and Toa Payoh adds Community Care Apartments for seniors.
Flat types and unit counts from the HDB Flat Portal project pages, retrieved 25 August 2026.
| Project | Flat types | Est. units | Our read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bedok site 1 | 2R Flexi, 4R | 860 | Bayshore precinct, coastal |
| Bedok site 2 | 2R Flexi, 3R, 4R | 1,640 | At Bayshore MRT, by East Coast Park |
| Geylang | 2R Flexi, 4R | 440 | Near Mattar MRT, city fringe |
| Sembawang | 2R Flexi, 3R, 4R, 5R | 1,310 | Full family mix |
| Tengah | 2R Flexi, 3R, 4R, 5R, 3Gen | 710 | Only 3Gen in this round |
| Toa Payoh | CCA, 2R Flexi, 4R | 1,430 | At Caldecott, TEL and CCL interchange |
| Yishun | 2R Flexi, 3R, 4R, 5R | 1,580 | Khatib side, biggest single site |
CCA is the Community Care Apartment, the assisted-living flat type for seniors. The seven project pages list 7,970 units in total against the roughly 7,960 in the MND release; final counts are confirmed at launch.
Which November BTO projects will be hardest to win?
Toa Payoh and the two Bedok sites, on any honest reading. The Toa Payoh project sits practically on top of Caldecott MRT on the Thomson-East Coast Line, in a mature central town where BTO supply is rare and every recent launch has been heavily oversubscribed. The Bedok pair extends the new Bayshore precinct beside East Coast Park, the kind of once-a-generation coastal location that pulled enormous application rates when its first projects launched. Expect both to draw first-timer application rates several times their supply. One number worth knowing before you fall for Bayshore: of the larger site’s 1,640 flats, 890 are 2-room Flexi and only 660 are 4-room. The famous coastal site is majority small flats, so its 4-room ballot will be the bloodiest of the exercise.
The value sleepers are the north. Sembawang and Yishun carry the widest flat mixes and the largest counts, at prices that historically undercut the central projects by a wide margin. Geylang is the wildcard: only around 440 units, city-fringe, near Mattar MRT, small enough that its application rate could spike on scarcity alone. Tengah remains the volume town of this cycle, and the only place in this round to get a 3Gen flat.
One caution before you chase the famous names. The central and coastal projects will almost certainly launch under the Plus or Prime classification, which brings bigger subsidies but also a 10-year minimum occupation period, a subsidy clawback on resale, and a permanently restricted resale buyer pool. The northern projects will likely be Standard, with the 5-year MOP and no strings. The classification decides what your exit looks like a decade from now, and it is worth more thought than the view.
Should you apply in November or wait for February 2027?
Here is the strange part of this exercise. The extra ballot chances for families, one per Singaporean child aged 18 or below, start only from the February 2027 exercise. That makes November the last exercise where a childless first-timer couple competes without the family multiplier in the pool. If that is you, this is arithmetically the best round you will see for a while, and the line-up happens to be strong.
If you have children, the temptation runs the other way: wait three months and carry more chances. We would mostly resist it. The extra ballots improve your odds only against the field of a future exercise whose projects nobody has seen, while Caldecott and Bayshore are on the table now and will not repeat. A better ballot chance at a project you want less is not a better outcome. The exception is a family with several children targeting an ordinary project, where the multiplier genuinely compounds and February’s odds could be materially better.
What do you need to do before 25 September?
The launch itself will bring prices, exact locations and the classification of each project, and we will publish the full read when it does. Until then, the only move that matters is the paperwork, and it has a date on it.
Talk through your November strategy →
Sources
Balloting in November, or torn between a BTO and going straight to resale with the new grant access? We map the odds, the timeline and what each path does to your next move, before you lock four years into a queue.
Written before launch, on the official pipeline. Towns, flat types, the 25 September HFE document date and the November timing are from HDB’s Flat Portal and the MND-HDB release of 23 August 2026. Per-project unit counts and flat mixes are as listed on HDB’s Flat Portal project pages on 25 August 2026 and may shift at launch. Project classifications (Standard, Plus, Prime), exact locations and prices are not yet announced; where we describe them, that is our assessment from location and precedent, marked as such. We will update or supersede this guide when the exercise launches. This is general information, not advice on your circumstances.