Renovating a Private Residential Property Part II

Depending on your property and type of renovation, you may need to obtain planning permission from URA.

Which renovation works require approval from URA? Additions and alterations to your property require approval if they:

affect the external facade of the building, or
result in an increase of the Gross Floor Area (GFA)

DEFINITION OF ADDITIONS & ALTERATIONS (LAND-TITLED RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY)

To qualify as an “Additions & Alterations’’ to a landed-titled residential property, the following criteria must be complied with:

the proposed additional gross floor area does not exceed 50% of the approved gross floor area;
the external walls that are to be removed and replaced with new walls do not exceed 50% of the approved external walls;
structurally changes to the existing landed dwelling house such as replacing or constructing new columns/beams and reconstructing existing floor slabs do not exceed 50% of the existing;
changes/replacement of entire roof, regardless of increase in height as long as it does not involve an additional storey;
addition of an attic provided the increase in GFA is less than 50%;

Proposals that do not comply with any of the above criteria are considered as “Reconstruction’’. The following works are deemed as reconstruction regardless of whether the works exceed 50% of the existing building:

Increase in storey height – Changes/replacement of any part of the roof when it involves an additional storey
Change in housing form – Works which result in a change to the landed dwelling house form, for example, from semi-detached house to detached house.

RENOVATING YOUR HOME (LAND-TITLED RESIDENTIAL)

Check if your renovation works are covered under the Planning Permission Exemption List. If they are not, you will need to obtain approval from URA.

Landed property owners can also use the Landed Housing e-Advisor to evaluate if your proposed works comply with Development Control Guidelines.

Landed property owners can also engage a Qualified Person (QP) to lodge the renovation works under the Plan Lodgment Scheme (Additions & Alterations) if your property is located in certain designated landed housing estate and meet certain criteria.

RENOVATING YOUR HOME (STRATA-TITLED RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY)

Generally, internal renovation works within your strata unit do not require planning permission. However, renovation works which affect the external façade of the building or result in an increase in Gross Floor Area (GFA) will require approval from URA.

In particular, for proposed Additions & Alteration works within strata units which involve an increase in GFA, the applicant is required to obtain a letter signed by the Secretary or Chairperson of the council of the MC confirming that the MC has by 90% resolution authorised the carrying out of the proposed works for the strata unit.

This authorisation letter duly signed by the authorised signatory of the Council of the MC is to be submitted to URA by the applicant together with the proposal as part of the planning application.

To download the format of the authorisation letter, please click here.

The above requirement is only applicable to non-conservation strata-titled residential properties.