- HDB had to build flats first, and then hope that there was enough demand to fill the flats
- Buyers were only able to select the broad geographical zone of their desired location, but the exact location and cost were only made known when they were invited to select their flats
- There was no way to know when the flats would be completed, and this invited further issues when flats were completed earlier but buyers weren’t adequately prepared with enough funds to pay for the downpayment.
It was on April 2001 that the Built-To-Order (BTO) system was first launched, with the pilot scheme offering 2,500 new flats at 4 sites in Sengkang and Sembawang.
This was done to replace the old Registration for Flats System (RFS), which had a few issues: