BCA to streamline approvals for outdoor advertising licensing from H2 2026

[SINGAPORE] The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) will streamline approval processes for outdoor advertising, to help businesses streamline operations and reduce their administrative burden, Minister for National Development Chee Hong Tat said on Friday (Jan 2) evening.

The minister announced two upcoming changes in H2 2026: an “express licence approval” process, and a streamlined application process for recurring temporary events.

The advertising and marketing industry has provided feedback that the licence approval processes for displaying outdoor advertisements is time-consuming, Chee said.

Currently, business owners need to submit applications for such licences for every event with outdoor advertisements, and must provide details such as the dimensions and number of advertisements in every application.

“For recurring events such as festivals and exhibitions, these details actually may not change much event to event. Yet, applicants still need to repeatedly provide the same or similar information each time,” Chee said, adding: “We can, and we need to do better than this.”

To tackle this inefficiency, BCA will first introduce an express licence approval, for about 2,000 applications annually.

This constitutes about 60 per cent of all outdoor advertising licence applications, said Chee, noting that these are typically signs for shopfronts, commercial buildings and business premises in residential and industrial areas.

Applicants can expect to obtain their licence “almost immediately” after completing their applications, saving up to seven days of waiting time compared with the current process, he added.

Secondly, BCA will streamline the licence application process for recurring temporary events.

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It will upgrade the application system to identify recurring events and pre-populate the details from previous applications for these events, Chee said.

He noted that this would benefit large-scale events that use “up to hundreds of outdoor advertisements”, he said, naming F1, i Light and Gastro Beats as examples.

“Event organisers could potentially save up to 10 days of application and waiting time with this change,” Chee said.

BCA is upgrading its IT system to support these changes and will implement them in the second half of 2026.

Chee was speaking at the Singapore Prestige Brand Award Presentation Ceremony held at the Ritz-Carlton Millenia. In his speech, he noted that streamlining rules and regulations to improve efficiency, reduce compliance costs and support new business models is one way the government supports businesses to thrive.

Some improvements implemented so far include streamlined applications for outdoor refreshment areas and simplified approval processes for land-based solar farms, he recapped.

Acknowledging that the business environment will pose both opportunities and challenges, he said: “The government will partner (businesses)... to improve (Singapore’s) operating environment and help as many companies to succeed as possible.”