S'pore Property Agent Creates Free Pri 1 Registration Map Showing Balloting Odds & Nearby Home Prices

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If your social media feed has been flooded with Primary 1 registration content lately, you're not alone Yes, it’s the season where Singapore parents eager to enrol their kids into their schools of choice suddenly transform into part-time data analysts.

One minute they're comparing schools or deep-diving into balloting phases, the next they're debating if living 0.99km versus 1.01km away from a school affects their chances, or wondering if moving house could improve their child's odds of getting in to their preferred school. 

One Singapore property agent figured there had to be an easier way and designed a free map to help parents in this process.

Speaking to 8days.sg, Ronald Lam (@heyronaldlam), a father of three boys, says Primary 1 registration was something his own family has had to navigate.

The property agent tells us that after years of clients asking him the same questions (Which school? Is being within 1km really worth it? Should we move?), he realised many parents were making one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives based on hearsay and forum threads.

Enter P1 Registration Explorer, a free web-based tool combines years of Primary 1 registration data, school balloting history and nearby property information into a single interactive map built by Ronald, who shared the news on Instagram recently.

"I spent 15 years in high-frequency trading, so my instinct was simple. Put the actual data in front of people, and then let them see it for themselves," Ronald tells us.

Just search for a school on the map and you will immediately see its 1km and 2km enrolment zones, making it much easier to visualise which homes fall within the distance bands used during the Primary 1 registration exercise.

"An explainer [on social media] answers one question for everyone. A tool lets every parent answer their own question for their own school, neighbourhood and budget,” he says.

The map also displays historical balloting data, allowing parents to see how competitive each school has been over the past seven years instead of relying on reputation, hearsay or WhatsApp forwards (yes, we have seen them in our group chats).

Perhaps the biggest surprise came after Ronald finished compiling years of MOE data.

He tells us that he discovered that demand is far more concentrated than many parents realise.

Out of the 187 schools in his database, around 60 have gone to ballot almost every year. Meanwhile, 69 have never balloted once. And some of these schools are practically neighbours.

For example, Ronald pointed to Pei Chun Public School, which has gone to ballot in six of the last seven years. Less than 400m away, First Toa Payoh Primary School has never balloted once.

He also noticed that some schools in younger estates such as Sengkang and Punggol ballot almost every year, largely because they are surrounded by young families.

On the other hand, several well-known "brand-name" schools turned out to be less competitive during Phase 2C than many parents assume.

"The tool lets parents check their assumptions against the data instead of relying on reputation," he said.

If you are also house hunting, the map does more than just show school data.

The map highlights nearby condominiums, shows how far they are from the school and even displays past transaction prices on a per-square-foot basis.

In other words, it helps answer two questions at once:

"Can my child get into this school?" and "Can I even afford to live nearby?"

But wait, why are HDB flats not included? After all, more than 70 per cent of Singapore residents live in public housing

Ronald tells us its because many of the enquiries he receives come from families who already own private property.

"Given the 15-month wait-out period before private homeowners can buy an HDB resale flat, moving into another HDB isn't usually realistic if they're planning around the Primary 1 registration timeline," he explained.

That said, he confirmed HDB resale data is the next major feature he will be adding.

"P1 registration matters just as much to HDB families. I want the tool to serve every parent,” he says.

Surprisingly, Ronald says building the website was actually the easy part and it only took him about a week, mostly after his three boys went to bed.

Cleaning and organising years of MOE registration data was the real challenge.

He tells us every year's balloting figures are cross-checked against MOE's official data before being added to the platform, while property transactions are refreshed quarterly.

When asked about the requirement to follow him on social media before accessing the map, Ronald says it wasn't originally part of the plan.

The first night the map went live, so many people messaged me for the link that Instagram throttled my account, and I couldn't reply to non-followers,” he explained.

“[But] if someone grabs the link and unfollows the next day, no hard feelings,” Ronald mused, adding that the tool is still free.

According to CNA, nearly half of all primary schools, 84 out of 179,  were oversubscribed during the crucial Phase 2C of the 2025 Primary 1 Registration Exercise.

Of those, 81 schools had to conduct balloting after the number of Singaporean applicants exceeded the available vacancies.