Over 19,000 applications were received by the HDB the day prior to the closing of the exercise, indicating that units are almost nine times oversubscribed. 

According to HDB, there is a growing demand for flats, which ranges from executive condos to studio apartments, particularly in estates like Woodlands, Bukit Panjang, Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Batok and Bedok.

In the last Build to Order exercise, those balance flats were not sold, which include repurchased flats and surplus flats of the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme. Home owners for these flats do not need to wait for a longer time before they can move in as such flats are either nearing completion or are already completed. 

The current balloting exercise, yearly sales and quarterly sales exercise were replaced by the Sale of Balance Flats exercise, the largest so far. 

According to the HDB, the reason behind the effort is for the process of flat applications to be simplified as well as to provide home buyers with a larger range of options across a variety of locations in a single exercise.