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Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)
Circulars

REVISED SITE COVERAGE GUIDELINES

Tags

Development Control

1 December 2024

Circular No : URA/PB/2024/05-DCG

Our Ref : DC/ADMIN/CIRCULAR/PB_24

CIRCULAR TO PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTES

Who Should Know:
Building Owners, Developers, Architects

Effective Date:
With effect from 1 March 2025

This circular supersedes Circular No: URA/PB/2019/12-DCG dated 05 July 2019 on “Simplification of Site Coverage Guidelines”

  1. This circular is to inform the industry of the revised site coverage guidelines.

Background

  1. The Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) site coverage guidelines are intended to safeguard a quality residential living environment by ensuring adequate open spaces within a development.

  2. In 2019, URA simplified the guidelines to include all building structures (including sun-shading features1 such as roof eaves and appendages) as part of site coverage computation. The site coverage controls for the various development types were also correspondingly increased, to accommodate the changes. The intent was to make it simpler for the industry to determine the site coverage for their proposals, without the need to differentiate between the various building features. It was also intended to provide design flexibility for Qualified Persons (QPs) within the revised site coverage controls.

  3. While the flexibility was appreciated by the industry, URA has observed an increase in landed housing developments which have maximized site coverage for living spaces and dispensing with sun-shading features since the 2019 site coverage guidelines were introduced. We have also received feedback from QPs regarding the same concerns. Sun-shading features are important in our local tropical climate. The resultant increase in building bulk also affects the character of our low-density landed housing estates.

Revised site coverage guidelines

  1. To address these concerns, URA has refined the site coverage guidelines to establish a 2-tier control for bungalows as follows (see Appendix 1 [PDF, 218 KB] for illustrations):

    1. The current site coverage control (applying to all building structures including sun-shading features) for bungalows will be retained at 50% (i.e. all building structures including sun-shading features will be counted towards this overall control). For Good Class Bungalows (GCBs), the site coverage is increased from 40% to 45%.

    2. A new sub-control is introduced to limit the bulk of the house. The sub-control will be measured up to the external façade of the building, including features such as balconies, planters, bay windows and roof terraces. 50% of the car porch roof area will also be counted towards the sub-control2. Sun-shading features (e.g. roof eaves, ledges, trellis, fins) will not be counted towards the sub-control.

  2. A summary of the 2-tier control is in Table 1. QPs need not maximise the sub-control and are encouraged to provide generous provision of sun-shading features within the overall site coverage control.

  3. The new sub-control will not apply to flats / condominium developments.

Table 1: Summary of revised site coverage controls for various developments

Developments

Sub-control (max)

Overall control (max)

GCBs

35%

45%

Bungalows

40%

50%

Flats & Condominiums

NIL

50%

Implementation

  1. The revised site coverage guidelines for bungalows and GCBs in Table 1 will apply to all development applications submitted to URA on or after 1 March 2025.

  2. Only formal development applications (excluding Outline Applications) which have already been granted Provisional Permission or which will result in a Provisional Permission that are submitted before 1 March 2025 will not be subject to the revised guidelines.

  3. I would appreciate it if you could convey the contents of this circular to the relevant members of your organisation. We have updated the same in the Development Control Handbooks. You are advised to refer to these Handbooks for the most updated guidelines and procedures instead of referring to past circulars. For feedback or enquiries, please email us.

Thank You.

GOH CHIN CHIN (MS)
GROUP DIRECTOR (DEVELOPMENT CONTROL)
for CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY

1 Prior to 2019, certain building features like cantilevered sun-shading features not exceeding 2m wide were excluded from site coverage computation. However, if there were vertical supports, such sun-shading features would be counted as site coverage, regardless of their width. This resulted in QPs having to expend time to differentiate between such features in the site coverage computation.

2 While the car porch roof serves a functional purpose to shelter the car porch area at the 1st storey, these also often double up as an outdoor balcony/terrace on the 2nd storey, which is an accessible space that adds to the building bulk. Taking feedback from industry for some leeway in computation, 50% of the car porch roof area is included towards the sub-control.

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