DC rates raised 1.7% on average for commercial use, trimmed 0.3% for non-landed residential use

The government has raised development charge (DC) rates for commercial use by 1.7 per cent on average for the period Sept 1, 2019 to Feb 29, 2020. This is a slower rate of increase than the 9.8 per cent hike for the last revision that took effect March 1 this year.

DC rates for non-landed residential use have been trimmed by 0.3 per cent on average. This follows the 5.5 per cent cut in March.

Developers pay DC for the right to enhance the use of some sites or to build bigger projects on them.

DC rates remain unchanged for all other uses.

The Ministry of National Development (MND) revises the rates on March 1 and Sept 1 each year, in consultation with the taxman's chief valuer (CV).

DC rates are based on CV's assessment of land values and take into consideration recent land sales. They are stated according to use groups across 118 geographical sectors in Singapore.

For commercial use, DC rates have been increased in 59 of the 118 geographical sectors by between 3 per cent and 7 per cent. Rates have been left untouched for the remaining 59 sectors.

The biggest increase of 7 per cent applies to the following sectors:

Sector 100 (Tampines Road/Hougang/Punggol/Sengkang area)

Sector 105 (Ang Mo Kio/Yio Chu Kang/Seletar area)

Sector 112 (Pan-Island Expressway/Bukit Batok East Avenue 6/Upper Bukit Timah Road/Clementi Road/West Coast Highway/Penjuru Road/Jalan Buroh/Jurong East area)

MND said that for non-landed residential use, DC rates were cut in seven out of the 118 sectors by between 4 per cent and 7 per cent. There is no change to the DC rates for the remaining 111 sectors.

The biggest cut of 7 per cent is for Sector 112.

The use groups for which there are no changes to DC rates at all are: landed residential, hotel/hospital, industrial and place of worship/civic and community institution, as well as for three other use groups, which include nature reserves, agricultural land, and drains, roads, railways and cemeteries.