As the land use agency, URA conveys our planning intentions for the urban environment via the Master Plan. In coming up with the plans, we seek to find a balance between facilitating developments and business uses, while minimising adverse impact on neighbouring properties and the community. This is especially important for Singapore given our built density and limited land area. We regulate and control developments to ensure that they are carried out in accordance with the planning intentions as stipulated in the statutory Master Plan, which include land use, building height and plot ratio.

Under the Planning Act (Cap 232), "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" shall be construed accordingly.

Unless specifically exempted, all development works require planning permission from URA.

Certain minor development works are exempted from planning permission. Some of these are:

You can expect a planning decision from URA within 20 working days. However, for more complex cases, more time may be required to evaluate the application and consult relevant agencies.

Processing fees for development applications vary according to the type of development. You may refer to the Fee Schedule (2016) (PDF).