Singapore legislation

Section 12

Meaning of “develop”

(1)

In this Part, except where the context otherwise requires, “develop” means to carry out any building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land, or the making of any material change in the use of any building or land:Provided that the following operations or uses of land shall not be deemed for the purposes of this Part 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 by any statutory authority of any works required for the maintenance or improvement of a street being works carried out on land within the boundaries of the street;

(c)

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;

(d)

the carrying out under the authority of any health authority under the Destruction of Disease-Bearing Insects Act of any act authorised under the provisions of that Act; (e)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;

(f)

the use of any land for the purposes of agriculture or forestry (including afforestation), and the use for any of those purposes of any building occupied together with land so used.

(2)

For the avoidance of doubt, it is hereby declared that for the purposes of this section —

(a)

the use as two 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 demolition of, reconstruction of or addition to a building constitutes development;

(e)

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; and

(f)

the deposit of refuse or waste materials on land involves a material change in the use thereof notwithstanding that the land is comprised of a site already used for that purpose, if the superficial area or the height of the deposit is thereby extended:Provided that nothing in this paragraph shall be deemed to require permission in respect of the deposit of refuse or waste materials on a site already used for that purpose if the height of the deposit does not exceed the level of the land adjoining the site, and the superficial area of the deposit is not thereby extended. [10

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