Everyone has their own dealbreakers when it comes to buying a home. For some, it’s a west-facing unit; for others, it’s living too close to the MRT because of the noise.
But what if your living room looked out onto a cemetery?
Some HDB flats in Commonwealth have become a talking point online after a property agent highlighted something rather unusual about the estate.
The blocks sit right beside Shuang Long Shan, Singapore’s last remaining Hakka cemetery.
“There’s no west-facing. There’s no east-facing. But there’s cemetery-facing,” quipped Singapore realtor Fakhrul Haaziq in a video he posted.
Here’s the surprising part. Despite having rows of tombstones as neighbours, these flats are currently listed for sale at more than S$1mil. In fact, a five-room flat here with 69 years left on the lease was sold in April for a whopping $1.3mil.
Standing between the HDB blocks and the cemetery, Fakhrul pointed out in the video just how closely both spaces coexist, separated by little more than a fence in some areas.
Established in 1887, Shuang Long Shan is one of the last urban cemeteries still standing in Singapore and the country’s only surviving Hakka cemetery.
Part of the cemetery was acquired by the Government in the 1960s as the surrounding area was redeveloped, with HDB flats eventually built around what remained.
Today, the cemetery has become such a familiar part of the neighbourhood that some residents reportedly use it as a shortcut to the main road and the nearby MRT station whenever its gates are open.
In fact, this writer has done exactly that before. In broad daylight, at least. And truth be told, it’s surprisingly peaceful and is probably one of the calmest shortcuts in Singapore.
After dark, however, we will let you be the judge.
The topic sparked plenty of discussion online, with netizens divided over whether they would ever buy a home next to a cemetery.
“HDB prices are scarier than ghosts,” one person joked.
“All the ghosts there [are] waiting for en bloc,” another quipped.
For context, the oldest flats in the estate were built in the 1970s, making them more than 50 years old today.
Not everyone saw the cemetery as a negative, though.
Some pointed out that living beside one could be a plus.
One TikTok user even claimed cemeteries are associated with good feng shui, believing they can bring positive fortunes to descendants.
What say you?