Residents Corner

Opportunity

Over 3 million Singaporeans live in HDB flats. Town councils try to inform residents about estate works by posting physical notices in advance, but the system has gaps.

Residents miss notices. Town councils aim to post notices 2 weeks in advance, but 40% of surveyed residents (12 out of 29) still found out too late - on the day works started, after they began, or only when they heard the noise. Residents entering via carpark levels or staircases don't see lobby notices. One resident dealing with chute fogging: "Cockroaches everywhere on the ground floor. no heads up for me to tape my chute up."

Town councils can't reliably reach residents. In one case, a town council created a Telegram channel and promoted it through events, newsletters, and emails - only 5% households signed up. Notices through social channels cast a wide net, and are less targeted. Despite their effort to reach residents where they are, they still get complaints claiming they didn't know.

Velocity

We built a digital platform that lets town councils post estate notices once and track aggregated stats on resident reach - something impossible with paper notices alone. The primary solution is a town council dashboard where staff can select affected blocks, set event types and timing, then publish notices digitally. They can see how many residents viewed each notice and update information instantly when schedules change.

Admin Events Dashboard

Event Details w/ Metrics

Update Published Event

To validate this approach, we also built a resident app where people enter their block's postal code to see and get notified of relevant upcoming works. This prototype helps us test whether digitising town council notices actually reaches more residents and reduces the need for door-to-door updates. The resident-facing component may not be part of the final solution - we're exploring integration with existing apps residents already use instead of building a new one.

Traction

Before Demo Day

• Reached out to 8 town councils cold

• 1 responded: Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC)

• Conducted a full meeting with AHTC, resulting in:

  • Concrete feature requests indicating intent to evaluate for operational use:

    • SingPass integration for resident authentication

    • Inter-departmental access and permissions

    • Multi-language and auto-translation support

    • Mobile interface for admin use

  • AHTC requested to be onboarded to the prototype for testing

At Demo Day

• 16 respondents filled in the interest form, all indicating interest in seeing the product continue

• Respondents came from across sectors:

  • HDB residents (majority)

  • People's Association (2 representatives, from separate divisions)

  • Ministry of Community, Culture and Youth (MCCY)

  • Social Service Agency (Allkin)

  • Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF)

• Resident feedback aligned with our core problem statement — 40% of surveyed residents only learn about estate works on the day they start or after:

  • "Get more direct updates from town council, esp cleaning schedules and events"

  • "Good to receive targeted notices as a resident. I've noticed outdated notices in the lifts"

  • "Updates are clear and intuitive"

• Unprompted interest from non-town council organisations:

  • An SSA (Allkin) asked whether community organisations could publish notices through the platform

  • A PA representative attended, suggesting relevance beyond town councils

After Demo Day

The prototype sparked conversations with agencies that work closely with town councils and residents. Discussions went into operational specifics, including:

• Integration with existing platforms to avoid disrupting current workflows

• Automating case acceptance and categorisation for estate-related feedback

• Multi-language support for notices

Let's Connect

Are you an HDB resident? Try Residents Corner here ↗ (opens in new tab)

Are you a Town Council interested in a pilot?
Get in touch at residentscorner@hack2026.gov.sg