Singapore loves ghost stories – no matter how terrifying or untrue – and we all love to gobble up scary tales. Especially when it’s Friday the 13th – and around the Hungry Ghost month! While many stories seem to take place in eerie cemeteries, MRT stations, and other random places, a number of them have been set in HDBs.
Jurong West St 81
A Facebook post on July 18, 2021 claimed that a flat along Jurong West St 81 is haunted. The post claimed a number of supernatural happenings, from seeing shadows to the presence of a phantom boy. While many of the claims overlapped with ghost stories of a nearby maisonette on Jurong West St 42, the only explanation for these spooky happenings was that Jurong West flats were built on top of cemeteries (even though the nearest, Choa Chu Kang Cemetery, is 7km away). Nevertheless, a number of netizens commented with their own stories of their time spent there.
Woodlands Street 83
Built in the 80s Block 852 was used as a quarantine facility during the 2003 SARS pandemic. After the outbreak, the flats were available as rentals, but the building remained largely empty. In addition, there were spooky tales here involved sightings of the spirits of a mother and daughter in the lifts. This is possibly linked to the tragedy that occurred in 2009 involving a mentally-disturbed 51-year-old mother who stabbed her teenage daughter to death. These days, the block has blended well into its neigbourhood and looks nothing out of extraordinary.
Geylang Lorong 3
One unit in Block 114 of Geylang Lorong 3 became infamous for a gruesome murder that took place in 2005. Factory supervisor Leong Siew Chor, who was married with kids, stole an ATM card from his younger lover, China national Liu Hong Mei. Fearing she’d identify him, he killed her in cold blood, chopping her body into 7 parts and then dumped them all around the vicinity of Kallang River. The police managed to retrieve all her body parts – except her feet. Occupants in the area still stray away from this unpleasant topic.
Bedok North
Many decades ago, a terrible tragedy took place at the 25-storey Block 99, not far from Bedok Reservoir. In one flat, a jilted wife threw her 3-year old son down 25 storeys before jumping out of the window herself. She left her husband and his mistress a handwritten note in her own blood on the wall: “it’s not over, darling.” Despite this, the husband and mistress lived there and had a child who one day was convinced by an “older brother” to jump out of the window. The unit has been said to be empty for years, following a string of odd events.
The area of Bedok around the reservoir is no stranger to tragic incidents – in 2011, a mother and 3-year old son were found floating in Bedok Reservoir, while in 2020, a mother with postpartum depression jumped to her death with her 5-week old daughter from a flat along Bedok North Road.
Toa Payoh Lorong 7
One of the most infamous murders in Singapore’s history took place in Block 12 back in 1981. A 9-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy were killed by a fake medium, Adrian Lim, and his two “holy” wives – Catherine Tan and Hoe Kah Hong – during a satanic ritual involving blood, drugs, and sex. The adults kidnapped and tortured the children before killing them and dumping their bodies. While a number of people have lived there over the years, the unit seems mostly vacant.
Tampines Street 44
Unlike other stories that have tales of hauntings that happened after a death or murder, the story at Block 470 seems to be the reverse. According to a resident of the block, a number of supernatural experiences happened in one of the units, ranging from scary apparitions to strange noises. However, a couple of years after the family moved out, tragedy struck the new family that moved in. In 2005, a father jumped to his death, blindfolded, while his wife and two children – aged 11 and 4 – were found dead in the flat.
Stigmatised properties
One has to remember that these are places where people live, so spreading any unsubstantiated rumours would not only annoy those living there, but also depreciate property prices in those blocks mentioned.
These so-called “murder homes” tend to be shunned by buyers and tenants, and become what is known as stigmatised properties. In Singapore, property agents and home sellers aren’t bound by law to disclose if a death has taken place in a home, so if anyone wants to know, they should do their research.
