The Zone, the Plot Ratio and the Planning Rules

PropKaki's Zoning Checker is a free lookup, with no account needed, covering 14,000+ Singapore commercial and industrial buildings. Search an address, postal code or building name and it returns the URA Master Plan land-use zone (such as Business 1, Business 2, Business Park, Commercial or White), the gross plot ratio, conservation and urban-design status, and whether the site sits in the Central Area — the same information you would otherwise read off the URA Master Plan map, matched to that exact building.

Business 1 (B1) and Business 2 (B2) are URA's two industrial land-use zones. B1 is for clean and light industry that can operate near homes — uses whose nuisance buffer is 50 m or less. B2 is for general and heavier industry with larger nuisance buffers, so B2 sites sit further from residential areas. Which uses are allowed in a specific unit is decided by URA's prevailing guidelines and any conditions on the site, so treat the zone as the starting point and confirm a specific use with URA or a Change of Use application.

The gross plot ratio is the maximum gross floor area a site can support divided by its land area, as set in the URA Master Plan — a plot ratio of 2.5 means a site can support floor area up to 2.5 times its land area, subject to other controls. Not every site has a numeric plot ratio: around a quarter of commercial and industrial buildings carry a notation instead, such as EVA (subject to evaluation), where intensity is decided case by case on application. PropKaki shows the number where URA publishes one and the notation, decoded, where it doesn't.

Usually not from public data alone, and PropKaki deliberately does not estimate it. Buildable headroom needs the site's verified built floor area, which BCA publishes for only a few hundred buildings — the Zoning Checker shows a development-envelope block only for those. For everything else, multiplying the plot ratio by the land area and subtracting a recorded GFA produces a number that looks precise and is not, because most recorded GFA figures are themselves derived from the plot ratio. A quantity surveyor or architect working from the approved plans is the reliable route.

A building in a URA conservation area — or gazetted for conservation itself, as many shophouses are — must keep its architectural character, and works are controlled under URA's conservation guidelines. That typically constrains redevelopment and alteration but is also why conserved shophouses hold distinctive value. PropKaki's Zoning Checker flags both the conservation area and whether the building itself is conserved, from URA Master Plan layers.

White is URA's most flexible zone: a White site can be developed for a mix of uses — commercial, hotel, residential or a combination — within the allowed intensity, and the mix can change over time without rezoning. Sites zoned Commercial & Residential are a related mixed-use category with a more fixed split. The Zoning Checker names these zones where they apply and also shows the nearest White GLS site where one sits within 400 m.

From the Urban Redevelopment Authority's Master Plan (the current gazetted edition) matched to each building's site, alongside ACRA company-registration counts and Government Land Sales records. Zoning shown here is informational: it reflects the gazetted Master Plan at the time of the last data refresh, and any transaction or change-of-use decision should be verified against URA's live Master Plan and guidelines. PropKaki's methodology page describes the sources and matching in detail.