If the house you stayed in has been built for quite some time or you bought a landed property but intend on rebuilding it before shifting it, but you aren’t familiar with the official guidelines and permits.
This article may help you to familiarize with what you should need to do before making some minor renovation or rebuilding the landed property.
Before we get into the topic, you will want to understand what kind of development that you can make on your landed property.
Types of Development That You Can Make On Your Landed Property
Tips On Rebuilding Singapore Landed Property 1: Additions and Alterations (A&A)
Additions and alterations refer to minor renovation that will not alter the house existing structure. It can be replacing flooring material, painting work, adding a partition work, adding mezzanine floors or other maintenance works.
No matter what kind of minor works you are doing, additions and alterations work cannot increase the gross floor area by more than 50%.
Tips On Rebuilding Singapore Landed Property 2: Reconstruction
If the renovation work that you are doing is exceeding the 50% of the gross floor area, this is considered as reconstruction.
Under URA guideline, works such as adding additional story, roof replacement and changing housing form is considered as reconstruction, regardless if the work exceed 50% of the gross floor area.
If you are thinking of increasing the number of storeys, it is subject to the zoning restrictions of your area. You can refer to URA’s Landed Housing Area Plan. Check your maximum storey that you are allowed to build before proceeding.
Tips On Rebuilding Singapore Landed Property 3: Rebuilding
Rebuilding means you will be tearing down the existing house and rebuilding it. This may cost you a bomb to demolish a home and rebuild it. You will want to consider this if the house is too old or the house isn’t using the full potential of the land.
Do take note that, if you are planning to rebuild a house, you have to consult an architect to do a building plan.
What Do You Need To Do Before Rebuilding Your Landed Property?
1. Get Approval
Before any renovation works starts, you will have to get the approval from the authority first. It will be URA or BCA.
You will to find an architect to do the building plan. Before any building work start, they must certify and inspect the building plans before they can submit it to the BCA for approval. Some additions and alterations work are exempted, but provided that it doesn’t impact the structure of your house.
For URA permission, it depends on the renovation works that you intend to do. You can get more information for your architect or building contractor.
2. Check The Envelope Control Plan
You will have to check out the envelope control plan guideline if you are planning to rebuild your house. If you building a multiple storey house, the maximum allowable height for two-storey is 12m and 15m for three-storey. For attic, the maximum height will be 3.5m.
This limitation is to preserve the control over the maximum height and safeguard the landed housing estates. But for interior and exterior design of your home, you will have the freedom to make the alterations.
One thing to take note is that you will need a buffer control between your house and the road outside your house. This is to ensure that you house doesn’t encroach into the space reserved for potential road widening in the future.
3. Know Your Budget
Rebuilding your house will cost you a bomb if you don’t manage well. If not, you will be heavily financed. It is best to find a reliable contractor in Singapore.
The cost of the rebuilding varies depending on what you are planning to do. Such as how many storey, how large is the area of the house, material of rebuilding etc. Make sure you go according to your budget if you are rebuilding.
Here is an overview of construction cost, it includes rebuilding, reconstruction, addition and alteration works, land surveyor fee, architect fees, lease extension to SLA if it is applicable,, submission of building plan permission to the authorities such as URA. There maybe other fees that the constructor will charge so get an official budget from them to know what exactly they are charging.
4. Master the Master Plan
As Singapore land size isn’t big, the master plan helps to constantly rejuvenate Singapore. It helps in managing land space in the present and provide a promising future for Singaporeans.
It helps to drive and motivate Singaporeans towards a better standard of living. Landed properties is perceived to be the new gold standard of affluent living. Certain area can only redeveloped into the same kind of housing and some are not protected from redevelopment. Some plots are reserved for condo or apartment blocks.
5. Rebuilt Size
By having a budget, it will help you to narrow down your search. You can think what type of building you want to build, whether you want to build a semi-detached home or a bungalow, how big the house you want to built. Having a rough idea will help to save you the agony of locating a suitable land size.
If you intending to buy a house and rebuilt it, be aware of some real estate agents in the market. They will calculate the gross floor area by multiplying the plot ration with the land area. This will give a vague number to the total gross floor area which is incorrect. It should not be used for landed house.
It is good to read through all these tips if you are considering to rebuild your house. There won’t be much rebuilding in your lifetime, so these tips will give you some help.
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