HARMONISATION OF FLOOR AREA DEFINITIONS BY URA, SLA, BCA AND SCDF

1. This circular is to inform the industry of the new harmonised floor area definitions that will be adopted by URA, SLA, BCA and SCDF. 

Current issues faced by the industry and homeowners

2. Today, agencies adopt different floor area measurements for various purposes. For example, URA uses gross floor area (GFA) to measure building intensity, SLA uses strata area to demarcate ownership, BCA uses statistical gross floor area (SGFA) to measure the total floor areas of a building, while SCDF uses accessible floor area (AFA) to determine fire safety requirements.  

3. In addition, agencies also define their various floor areas differently. For instance, URA’s GFA is measured to include the full thickness of external walls but excludes voids, whereas SLA’s strata area is only measured up to the middle of the wall and may include voids (see details in Appendix 1). This results in QPs expending a significant amount of time and effort calculating the various floor areas to fulfil the different agencies’ regulatory requirements.


4. The different floor area definitions also create confusion for property owners who wish to carry out addition and alteration works within their strata units, but encounter increase in GFA of the development even though there is no increase in strata floor area e.g. slabbing over of internal void space.

Revised floor area definitions

5. In consultation with industry representatives from the professional institutes, URA, SLA, BCA and SCDF have jointly reviewed the different floor area definitions to harmonise requirements across agencies, which aims to pave the way for coordinated submissions and improved productivity for the built environment profession. The key changes are summarised as follows:

a. All agencies’ floor areas will be measured to the middle of the wall.

b. All strata areas will be included as GFA.

c. All voids will be excluded from strata area.

d. BCA and SCDF will adopt an aligned definition for SGFA computation.

6. The details of agencies’ revised floor area definitions are found in Appendices 2 to 4. Additional clarification on URA’s revised GFA definition can be found in the FAQ.

Implementation

7. The revised floor area definitions in Para 5 will apply to all development applications¹ submitted to URA on or after 01 June 2023. The revised definitions will also apply to all Government Land Sale (GLS) and industrial Government Land Sale (iGLS) sites² launched for sale on or after 01 September 2022.


8. The old floor area definitions will continue to apply under the following scenarios:

a. Development applications (excluding Outline applications) submitted to URA before 01 June 2023 that have already obtained URA’s Provisional Permission (PP), or which will result in a PP.

b. All amendment applications³ for projects that had earlier obtained URA’s Written Permission (WP) based on old floor area definitions.

9. We would appreciate it if you could convey the contents of this circular to the relevant members of your organisation. We will update the guidelines accordingly on our websites before the guidelines take effect. If you or your members have any queries concerning this circular, please contact the relevant agencies:

a. URA: https://www.ura.gov.sg/feedbackWeb/contactus_feedback.jsp

b. SLA: https://www.sla.gov.sg/enquiry-feedback

c. BCA: https://www.bca.gov.sg/feedbackform/

d. SCDF: SCDF_QP_Consultant@scdf.gov.sg

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¹For Additions & Alterations (A&A) applications to existing buildings, there will be no change to the strata computation of existing voids. If new voids are proposed in A&A applications submitted to URA on or after 01 June 2023 without a valid PP, these new voids shall not be computed towards the total strata area. For minor A&A works, URA is prepared to consider applying the revised GFA definition only to the affected parts of the development. This will be assessed on a case-by-case basis taking into consideration the scale and nature of the A&A works.

²These include GLS and iGLS sites on the Reserve List that are successfully triggered and launched for sale on or after 01 September 2022.

³Proposals that involve major changes (i.e. re-design and re-configuration) to the original approved development will not be accepted as an amendment application. A fresh development application would be required for such proposals.