Planning Act 1998

Planning Act 1998 2020 REVISED EDITION This revised edition incorporates all amendments up to and including 1 December 2021 and comes into operation on 31 December 2021 An Act to provide for the planning and improvement of Singapore and for purposes connected therewith. [Act 11 of 2021 wef 01/08/2022] [1 April 1998] PART 1 PRELIMINARY Short title 1. This Act is the Planning Act 1998. Interpretation 2. In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires — “amendment”, in relation to the Master Plan, includes any alteration or addition to or any repeal or replacement of the Master Plan in whole or in part; “architect” means a person who is registered as an architect under the Architects Act 1991 and who has in force a practising certificate issued under that Act; “breach of planning control” means — (a) the carrying out of any development of land without the requisite planning permission; (b) the carrying out of works in a conservation area without the requisite conservation permission; or (c) any failure to comply with any condition imposed under section 14(4) for a written permission or any condition of an authorisation under section 21(6); “building” includes any house, hut, shed or roofed enclosure (whether used for the purpose of human habitation or otherwise) and also any wall, fence, platform, staging, gate, post, pillar, paling, frame, hoarding, slip, dock, wharf, pier, jetty, landing-stage or bridge, or any structure or foundation connected to the foregoing; “certificate of statutory completion” has the meaning given by the Building Control Act 1989; “Certified Interpretation Plan” means a Certified Interpretation Plan prepared and certified by the competent authority under section 7; “Collector” has the meaning given by the Land Revenue Collection Act 1940; “competent authority”, in relation to this Act or any Part or provision of this Act, means any competent authority appointed under section 5 to be responsible for the operation of this Act or that Part or provision, as the case may be; “conservation” means the preservation, enhancement or restoration of the character or appearance of, and the interior and exterior of any building in, a conservation area; “conservation area” means an area designated by the Minister in accordance with sections 8 and 9; “conservation guidelines” means the conservation guidelines issued under section 11; “conservation permission” means permission mentioned in section 12(2); “developer” means the person for whom or on whose behalf development of land or works within a conservation area are carried out; [Deleted by Act 11 of 2021 wef 01/08/2022] “dormitory accommodation” includes accommodation occupied, or available for occupation, by 7 (or such other number as the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, prescribe in substitution) or more individuals, where rent or other form of consideration is paid or given for the accommodation, whether by an occupant or another person, and whether or not the relationship of landlord and tenant is thereby created, except where the occupants consist only of the following: (a) an individual who is related by blood, marriage or adoption (by virtue of an order of court in Singapore or elsewhere) to all other occupants except an occupant mentioned in paragraph (b) or (c); (b) a domestic worker whose work permit states the premises occupied as the domestic worker’s residential address; (c) an individual engaged to provide care or medical assistance to another occupant; “enforcement notice” means a notice served under section 28; “engineer” means a person who is registered as a professional engineer under the Professional Engineers Act 1991 and who has in force a practising certificate issued under that Act; “functions” includes powers and duties; “holding” means any piece or parcel of land held or possessed under an instrument of title, capable of being registered under the Registration of Deeds Act 1988 or, where applicable, under the Land Titles Act 1993, relating exclusively thereto; “information notice” has the meaning given by section 25; “land” includes buildings and any estate or interest in or right over land; “land surveyor” means a person who is a registered surveyor under the Land Surveyors Act 1991 and who has in force a practising certificate issued under that Act; [Act 25 of 2024 wef 01/10/2025] “Master Plan” has the meaning given by section 6; “occupier” includes any person in actual occupation of land or premises or any person having the charge, management or control of the land or premises either on the person’s own account or as an agent of another person, but does not include a lodger; “owner”, in relation to land or premises, means the person for the time being receiving the rent of the land or premises whether on the person’s own account or as trustee for any other person or as receiver (not being appointed by or on behalf of a mortgagee) or the person who would receive the rent if the land or premises were let to a tenant and includes — (a) a mortgagee in possession; and (b) the purchaser of any newly constructed premises or part thereof in respect of which a temporary occupation permit or a certificate of statutory completion has been granted; “planning permission” means permission mentioned in section 12(1); “prescribe” means prescribe by rules made under this Act; “provisional permission” means provisional permission granted under section 17(1) or 17A(2); [Act 23 of 2023 wef 18/12/2023] “purchase notice” means a notice served under section 24; “qualified person” means a person specified in the First Schedule; “repealed Act” means the repealed Planning Act (Cap. 232, 1990 Revised Edition); “street” includes any road, square, footway or passage, whether a thoroughfare or not, over which the public has a right of way, and also the way over any public bridge, and includes also any road, footway or passage, open court or open alley, used or intended to be used as a means of access to 2 or more holdings, whether the public has a right of way thereover or not; and all channels, drains and ditches at the side of any street are deemed to be part of that street; “subdivision permission” means permission mentioned in section 12(3); “temporary occupation permit” has the meaning given by the Building Control Act 1989; “use”, in relation to land, does not include the use of land by the carrying out of any building or other operations on the land; “works within a conservation area” means — (a) any development of land within a conservation area; or (b) any decorative, painting, renovation or other works (whether external or internal) to any building within a conservation area which may affect its character or appearance; “written permission” means a planning permission, conservation permission or subdivision permission (as the case may be) granted by a competent authority and includes any such permission granted or issued by electronic transmission or in a medium other than paper and authenticated in such manner as the competent authority may determine; “written statement”, in relation to the Master Plan, means that part of the Master Plan which includes a summary of the main proposals of the Master Plan with such descriptive matter as the competent authority considers necessary to illustrate the proposals of the Master Plan or as the Minister may, from time to time, direct for that purpose. [17/2001; 30/2003; 7/2017] Meaning of “development” 3.—(1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), in this Act, except where the context otherwise requires, “development” means the carrying out of any building, engineering, mining, earthworks or other operations in, on, over or under land, or the making of any material change in the use of any building or land, and “develop” and “developing” are to be construed accordingly. (2) The following operations or uses of land are not to be deemed for the purposes of this Act to involve development of land: (a) the carrying out of works for the maintenance, improvement or other alteration of a building which do not materially affect the external appearance or the floor area of the building; (b) the carrying out of such minor or preliminary works and such temporary use of land as the competent authority may declare for the purpose of this subsection; (c) the carrying out by any statutory authority of any works on land within the boundaries of a street, being works which are necessary for the maintenance or improvement of the street; (d) the carrying out by any statutory authority of any works for the purpose of laying, inspecting, repairing or renewing any sewers, mains, pipes, cables or other apparatus, including the breaking open of any street or other land for that purpose; (e) the carrying out of any act authorised or required by the Control of Vectors and Pesticides Act 1998; (f) the use of any existing building or land within the curtilage of a dwelling house for any purpose incidental to the enjoyment of the dwelling house as such; (g) the use of any land for the purposes of forestry (including afforestation) and the use for any of those purposes of any building occupied together with land so used; (h) in the case of any building or land which is used for a purpose of any class specified in any rules made under section 61, the use of the building or land or any part thereof for any other purpose within the same class. [11/2019] (3) To avoid doubt, it is declared that for the purposes of this section — (a) the use as 2 or more separate houses of any building previously used as a single house involves a material change in the use of the building and of each part thereof which is so used; (b) the use as a dwelling house of any building not originally constructed for human habitation involves a material change in the use of the building; (c) the use for other purposes of a building or part of a building originally constructed as a dwelling house involves a material change in the use of the building; (d) the use for a purpose specified in the Fourth Schedule of a building or part of a building originally constructed as a dwelling house constitutes development, whether such use commenced before, on or after 15 May 2017; (e) the demolition or reconstruction of or addition to a building constitutes development; (f) the use for the display of advertisements of any external part of a building which is not normally used for that purpose involves a material change in the use of the building; (g) the deposit of refuse or waste materials on land involves a material change in the use of the land even though the land is comprised in a site already used for that purpose, if — (i) the superficial area of the deposit is extended; or (ii) the height of the deposit is extended and exceeds the level of the land adjoining the site; (h) subject to subsection (2)(h), the use of any building or part thereof for any purpose other than that for which the building was originally constructed involves a material change in the use of the building; (i) any decorative, painting, renovation or building works, whether external or internal, to or on a monument in respect of which there is in force a preservation order under the Preservation of Monuments Act 2009 constitutes building operations; (j) the use and operation as 2 or more separate entities of any building or buildings or part of a building which is or are approved or authorised to be used and operated as one single entity for any of the uses specified in the Second Schedule involves a material change in the use of the building or buildings or part of the building; and (k) where a planning permission or conservation permission is cancelled under section 15(4), a planning permission or conservation permission granted for a specified period has lapsed, or a condition of an authorisation under section 21(6) is breached, the continued use of any building or land for any purpose constitutes development from the date of the cancellation, lapsing or breach, as the case may be. [30/2003; 16/2009; 7/2017] Meaning of “subdivide” 4.—(1) Subject to this section, a person is, for the purposes of this Act, said to subdivide land if, by any deed or instrument, the person conveys, assigns, demises or otherwise disposes of any part of the land in such a manner that the part so disposed of becomes capable of being registered under the Registration of Deeds Act 1988 or, in the case of registered land, being included in a separate folio of the land‑register under the Land Titles Act 1993, and “subdivide” and “subdivision” are to be construed accordingly. (2) Despite subsection (1), the following leases granted on or after 1 April 1998 are not to be regarded as a disposal of the land or part thereof: (a) in the case of any development described in Part 1 of the Third Schedule — the grant of any lease for any unit in the development for a term not exceeding an aggregate of 14 years; (b) in the case of any development described in Part 2 of the Third Schedule — the grant of any lease for a building or any part of a building comprised in the development for a term not exceeding an aggregate of 14 years; (c) in the case of any other land — the grant of any lease of the whole or part of the land for a term not exceeding an aggregate of 7 years. [30/2003] (3) The Minister may, at any time, by order in the Gazette amend, delete or add to the list of leases in subsection (2) which are not to be regarded as a disposal of land or part thereof. [30/2003] (4) For the purposes of this section — (a) the fact that the term of a lease may be extended pursuant to an option is to be taken into consideration in determining whether the term of the lease exceeds any of the periods specified in subsection (2); and (b) the fact that a lease for a specified period of time is determinable on the happening of an event within that time is not to be taken into consideration in determining the term of the lease. [30/2003] Competent authority 5.—(1) The Minister may appoint any person or persons as the Minister thinks fit to be the competent authority or authorities responsible for the operation of this Act, either generally or for any particular Part or provision of this Act or for any particular rules made under this Act, and may in the notification specify the extent of and manner in which that responsibility is to be exercised. [Act 5 of 2025 wef 09/03/2025] (1A) An appointment under subsection (1) must be published in the Gazette. [Act 5 of 2025 wef 09/03/2025] (2) The functions conferred on the competent authority by this Act may be performed by any officer mentioned in subsection (3) who has been generally or specially authorised by name or office by the competent authority, and subject to the competent authority’s direction and control. (3) The competent authority may authorise any of the following persons to perform all or any of the competent authority’s functions conferred by this Act: (a) any public officer; (b) any officer in the employment of a statutory authority which has been approved by the Minister for the purpose. (4) Without affecting subsections (2) and (3), the competent authority may, with the approval of the Minister, authorise generally or specially any person to perform any or all of the functions conferred on the competent authority by sections 27 and 31, subject to the direction and control of the competent authority. [17/2005] (5) Any officer or person who is authorised (whether generally or specially) under subsection (2) or (4) to perform the functions of the competent authority under this Act is deemed to be — (a) a public officer for the purposes of this Act; and (b) a public servant within the meaning of the Penal Code 1871. [17/2005]