Business Times, Feb 7, 2025
The government has announced that it is extending the Central Business District Incentive (CBDI) and Strategic Development Incentive (SDI) schemes for another five years. The CBDI and SDI schemes were introduced by the government in November 2019. The latest decision was unveiled by Desmond Lee, Minister of National Development (MND) at the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore (Redas) annual Spring Festival lunch on Feb 7.
The CBDI scheme was rolled out to encourage the conversion of existing older office buildings in certain areas of the Central Business District (CBD) into mixed-use developments. These areas consist of Anson Road, Cecil Street, Tanjong Pagar, Robinson Road, and Shenton Way. The scheme is intended to inject more homes, bolster the live-in population in the CBD, and introduce a greater mix of uses in the traditionally commercial-centric district. The SDI was introduced to encourage the redevelopment of older developments in strategic areas to bolster transformative changes within surrounding urban environments.
According to URA, 14 of the 17 CBDI proposals and seven of the 12 SDI proposals submitted to the government have been granted in-principal approval. Four CBDI projects in the Anson-Tanjong Pagar area are under construction. They includeOne of these is Newport Plaza, a mixed-use development on 80 Anson Road, which comprises the 246-unit Newport Residences as well as 197 serviced apartment units. Another project is Skywaters Residences comprises 190 luxury residential units as part of a larger mixed-use development on 8 Shenton Way. The other two are commercial developments at 15 Hoe Chiang Road and 51 Anson Road.
However, Minister Lee says the five-year extension of the CBDI and SDI will come with refinements to both schemes. Under the CBDI scheme, developers and property owners who submit CBDI proposals for commercial developments will have the option to retain their commercial zoning (with 40% non-commercial use) if the redevelopment includes long-stay serviced apartment units. Previously limited to Tanjong Pagar, Robinson Road, and Shenton Way areas, this option has been extended to commercial developments in the Anson Road and Cecil Street area.
According to URA, CBDI applicants in Anson Road and Cecil Street can redevelop without meeting the requirement of long-stay serviced apartments, if they opt for the following land uses: “Residential with Commercial at 1st storey”, “Commercial & Residential” and “Hotel”. They only need to allocate space for long-stay serviced apartments if they intend to build a development with “commercial (with 40% non-commercial)” uses. In addition, the revamped CBDI and SDI schemes will include new sustainability requirements, and all new CDBI and SDI applications going forward must include a sustainability statement that assesses the feasibility of retrofitting part, or all, of the existing building.
Minister Lee said that this is to ensure that there is no wasteful demolition and excessive rebuilding, especially if the buildings are relatively young or still in good shape.