The one thing that decides your HDB build
Everything else is a preference. Neutral wiring is not. A smart switch needs a permanent live and a neutral to power its own radio; older HDB lighting circuits routinely bring only the live to the switch box, with the neutral looping at the ceiling rose.
If your flat has neutral at the switch, you can use any smart switch on the market and the system behaves predictably from day one. If it does not, you have three options: pull neutral wires (a licensed electrical job, and the one we recommend), fit no-neutral switches with capacitors at the light fitting, or move control to the bulb instead of the switch.
BTO flats handed over in recent years generally do have neutral at the switch. Resale flats are a coin toss until somebody opens a switch plate and looks. We check this on the first visit, before a single product is discussed.
What a typical HDB scope covers
An HDB flat is compact and predictable, which makes it the easiest property type to do well. A representative 4-room build looks like this:
Smart switches on every gang in the living room, bedrooms, kitchen and both bathrooms, so the wall still works for guests and the app is an addition rather than a replacement.
An IR or wired module per fan coil unit, which brings the system-3 or system-4 into the same dashboard as everything else, plus scheduling and a hard cutoff when nobody is home.
Motorised tracks in the living room and master bedroom. This is the single most requested item after lighting and the one that needs a power point planned before the carpenter arrives.
A dedicated smart switch with a timer, which is the automation people notice most because it removes a daily chore rather than adding a gadget.
Occupancy in the bathrooms and the yard, contact sensors on the main door and the bomb shelter, so the automations have something to react to.
A Home Assistant machine in the store room or the TV console, with a Zigbee and Thread coordinator. This is what makes the whole thing local.
Before renovation or after?
Before is easier and cheaper. If your ID and electrician are still on site, neutral wires get pulled while the walls are open, curtain power points land where the track will be, and the network cable to the TV console costs almost nothing to add.
After is entirely possible, and most of our HDB work is retrofit. It costs more because the electrical work is now its own visit, and it takes more care because concealing new wiring in a finished flat is the difference between a professional job and a trunking maze. We plan the routes before we quote.
If you are mid-BTO and the keys are not in your hand yet, the useful thing to do is not buy anything. Bring the floor plan to a design session and we will mark the points that need to exist before the contractor closes the walls.
What it costs
HDB pricing scales with the flat rather than with ambition. A 2-room is priced at roughly three quarters of a 4-room, a 5-room at a quarter above it, and Maisonette or Jumbo units at half again, because the device count and the cable runs both grow.
The pricing page gives you an indicative installed range for your flat type, your package and how much of the work you want us to take on. The itemised number comes out of the design session.