PUBLISHED ONFebruary 27, 2026 12:41 PMBYSean LerBusinesses will now have greater clarity and certainty when making decisions relating to land betterment charges (LBC) following improvements made to the system, announced Minister for Law Edwin Tong.
Tong, who is also Second Minister for Home Affairs, made the announcement at the Real Estate Developer's Association of Singapore's (Redas) spring festival lunch event at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel on Friday (Feb 27) afternoon.
Citing changes made to the temporary occupation licence process for showflat sites in November 2025, Tong said that this is an example of how collaboration between the Government and private sector has translated into tangible improvements.
"This example is one of open dialogue and willingness to find practical solutions (and) benefits not just developers, but ultimately all Singaporeans who aspire to own quality homes," the minister added.
The LBC system was introduced in August 2022 to simplify application processes for landowners and developers — who previously had to make separate applications to the Urban Redevelopment Authority and Singapore Land Authority (SLA).
Among the enhancements announced was the introduction of a LBC estimator, integrated into SLA's OneMap portal.
The estimator allows users to independently estimate the LBC payable for development proposals up front by entering key inputs for scenario testing under different development options.
"This will provide greater certainty for businesses when trying to work out their costs overall," Tong said.
Other enhancements to the LBC system include: bringing forward the start of the valuation process for spot valuation cases to the provisional permission stage, and classifying solar deployments as utilities — removing the need for them to rely on spot valuation.
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