Review of Fire Safety and Evacuation Risks Following Temporary Relaxation of Occupancy Cap for Private Residences

5 Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo asked the Minister for National Development (a) whether URA has assessed the fire safety and evacuation risks arising from the temporary relaxation of the occupancy cap for private residences; and (b) what safeguards are in place to address higher turnover and foot traffic arising from the increased occupancy cap.

The Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for National Development (Dr Syed Harun Alhabsyi) (for the Minister for National Development): All residential premises in Singapore are subject to fire safety requirements regulated by the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). For example, fire escape routes, such as common corridors and staircases, need to be well-ventilated to aid smoke dispersal during a fire. Exit staircases are also located to provide residents with safe escape routes. Each residential unit is designed as a fire compartment to delay the spread of fire. This facilitates firefighting while enhancing the safety of residents.

These standards remain sufficient with the temporary higher occupancy cap for larger private residential properties.

Mr Speaker: Ms Tan.

Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo (East Coast): Thank you, Mr Speaker, I have two supplementary questions for the Senior Parliamentary Secretary.

First of all, how does the Building and Construction Authority monitor that the tenancy of private residence aligns with the building occupancy load requirements to ensure safety and accessibility? Fire safety and building code risks are hard to detect in terms of safety risk breaches. Because the overload of electrical points and all that are within the households, so, it is very difficult, even for the Management Corporations Strata Title (MCSTs) let alone the authorities to monitor and check. That can cause a big fire risk.

The other supplementary question that I have is, what measures are in place to maintain residents' liveability? Beyond safety, higher density also affects day-to-day liveability, because if there are multiple units within a block that have these eight occupants, common corridors, lifts and all the other facilities will be overloaded. Even access, in terms of evacuation, within a block could be strained because a building load is of a certain capacity. But if there are multiple units, then we will have a problem and that is also difficult to monitor.

Dr Syed Harun Alhabsyi: I thank the Member for her supplementary questions. First of all, I would reiterate what I answered earlier: in terms of the standards as far as fire safety is concerned, they remain sufficient even with the temporary higher occupancy cap for larger private residential estates.

Just a few points with regard to the allowability of higher occupancy rates. They are only applicable for larger private residential properties, at least 90 square kilometres. [Please refer to ​"Clarification by Senior Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for National Development", Official Report, 25 February 2026, Vol 96, Issue 19, Correction By Written Statement section.] And that is the equivalent size of a typical four-room Housing and Development Board flat.

I wish to assure the Member that for the owners of eligible properties, if they do wish to increase their occupancy cap, they must first register with the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) with a registration fee of $20 to qualify for the higher occupancy cap. Therefore, any allowability for the increase in occupancy cap is registered with the URA and that becomes a point of monitoring of sorts.

With regard to dealing with the residents' liveability within the estates, the monitoring of that will come within the MCST of the condominiums to make sure that common spaces and corridors do adhere to the liveability standards or the fire safety standards as provided by SCDF.

On top of that, while we are looking at the common spaces, I want to reassure the Member that it also comes with a strong sense of prevention as well as public education efforts by the SCDF even in private condominium estates. So, for example, in terms of the ongoing public education efforts, to equip the community with good awareness as well as essential fire safety knowledge, it is done with the ground Community Emergency and Engagement Committees as well as the Community Emergency Response Teams. So, there are regular engagements even with the private estates. Specific to condominiums, there are also safety and security days as well as the block evacuation drills.

While the Member has mentioned with regard to the loading as well as the liveability as a result of the higher occupancy cap, it is the case that we are looking at it holistically – from prevention to the regulation, and subsequent to that, as part of the community engagement, increasing the emergency preparedness of all who stay within the condominiums.

One would expect that if any resident were to be able to see that there are some fire safety hazards, that these will be highlighted. And where they are highlighted to the authorities, inspections will ensue.

11.04 am

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question Time. The Clerk will now proceed to read the Order of the day.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No 22(3), provided that Members had not asked for questions standing in their names to be postponed to a later Sitting day or withdrawn, written answers to questions not reached by the end of Question Time are reproduced in the Appendix.]