B1 vs B2 Industrial in Singapore: What Each Zone Allows, and the Price Gap Like for Like

URA's handbook puts it in one line: "Depending on the nature of their activities, clean and light industries are allowed in Business 1 (B1) zone. General and special industries are to be located in Business 2 (B2) zone" (URA). The difference is the buffer: NEA "would require a 50m nuisance buffer from a B1 zone to the surrounding area" and "a 100m nuisance buffer from a B2 zone" (URA; URA).

Rules: URA's Master Plan 2025 Written Statement (URA) and its B1 and B2 handbooks, updated 6 June 2026 (B1 uses; B2 uses). Figures: PropKaki's industrial register and URA caveats.

B1 costs more per square foot at the median, but that is mostly because of where B1 units are and how much lease they have left (see the price question below). The median price paid was the same in both zones: $950,000.

B1 is the lighter zone that can sit nearer homes; B2 is for heavier work, kept further away.

The Master Plan 2025 defines Business 1 as "areas used or intended to be used mainly for clean industry, light industry, public utilities, and telecommunication uses and other public installations for which the relevant authority does not impose a nuisance buffer greater than 50m. General industrial uses that are able to meet the nuisance buffer requirements imposed by the relevant authority for general industries may be allowed in the B1 zones, subject to evaluation by the relevant authority and the competent authority" (URA).

URA's handbook adds the test in plain terms: "Industrial activities that require a nuisance buffer greater than 50m to the surrounding area may not be located in B1 zone." Owners can check a proposed use with NEA first: they "may also submit an Industrial Siting Consultation (ISC) to NEA to seek advice on the proposed use of their industrial premises" (URA).

URA's examples of main B1 uses: "Manufacturing (Light Industries)", "Food Industry (Packing)", "Core Media", "Printing / Publishing", "E-Business" and "Industrial Training" (URA).

Light industrial means a 50m buffer: an activity that needs more belongs in B2.

The Master Plan 2025 defines Business 2 as "areas used or intended to be used for clean industry, light industry, general industry, warehouse, public utilities and telecommunication uses and other public installations. Special industries such as manufacture of industrial machinery, shipbuilding and repairing, may be allowed in selected areas subject to evaluation by the relevant authority and the competent authority" (URA).

URA's examples of main B2 uses: "Manufacturing (General Industry)", "Repair & Servicing", "Production", "Storage of chemicals, oils", "Assembly", "Knitting Mills", "Core Media", "E-Business" and "Industrial Training" (URA). Its ancillary uses add a "Sick Room", a "Diesel and Pump Point" and "M&E Services" to the office, meeting room, showroom and canteen that B1 also allows. One e-business use is kept out: call centres "Can be located in Business Park and Business 1, but not in Business 2 developments" (URA).

NEA "would require a 100m nuisance buffer from a B2 zone to the surrounding area". That is the zone's buffer, not a rule for every activity: "The different types of industries and their associated buffer requirements can be found in NEA's Code of Practice for Pollution Control (SS593)" (URA).

B2 is where the heavier work goes: general industry, warehousing and, in selected areas, special industry.

The 60/40 rule. "At least 60% of the total B1 industrial GFA (ie minimum 60%) shall be used for industrial purpose. The remaining 40% may be used for ancillary (or supporting) uses." It applies unit by unit too: "Within each strata-subdivided industrial unit, at least 60% of the floor area shall be used for industrial uses. Ancillary uses (e.g. ancillary office, meeting rooms) shall not occupy more than 40% of the unit's floor area" (URA).

Work that counts as industrial. URA's B1 list of main uses includes e-business and core media, with this footnote: "The e-business activities shown in the table below are regarded as industrial uses allowed as part of the 60% predominant use quantum." The table names telecommunications, data farms and data centres, internet service providers, "Software Development" ("Provides software design, customisation and maintenance. Includes software application providers.") and call centres, which "Can be located in Business Park and Business 1, but not in Business 2 developments". Data centres "would require prior planning permission". Core media counts too: "Core media activities, which are production services that require technical facilities such as studios and high-tech production software/hardware, are allowed as part of the 60% predominant use quantum" (URA).

A general office. Offices are among the uses URA lists for the White component of an industrial development: "Shop", "Restaurant", "Showroom", "Office (includes bank), Commercial School", "Sports and Recreation facilities, Fitness Centre", and more: "The actual allowable uses shall be subject to planning evaluation" (URA). The Master Plan zones for that mix are Business 1 - White and Business 2 - White, "a mixed-use development" in which "A minimum plot ratio must be achieved for the B1 uses before White uses can be allowed" (URA).

The same use-quantum page notes that single-user developments cannot be split up: "For single-user developments, strata subdivision is not allowed. Sub-leasing of space is allowed" (URA).

A general office in B1 is ancillary; software, call-centre and media production work can count as industrial.

• Gyms, clinics, banks and minimarts, as amenities for workers. "To provide basic amenities to workers in industrial estates located away from commercial centres, selected commercial uses namely; clinics, banking halls/ATMS, mini marts, fitness centre/gyms, may be considered on Temporary Permission for up to 3 years", if the development "is located within one of the outlying industrial estates", the uses are "on the 1st storey", and their total floor area does "not exceed 200sqm or 10% of the total GFA of the development, whichever is lower" (URA). URA's B2 page sets the same conditions (URA).
• Shops, restaurants, gyms and offices as full uses. These are on URA's list for the White component, subject to planning evaluation, in developments zoned B1-White or B2-White (URA).
• Childcare. "Proposed CCCs may be considered only within B1 developments, subject to clearances from the National Environment Agency (NEA) and Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA). CCCs are not permitted within B2 developments" (URA).

Before buying for any of these uses, check the zone with PropKaki's zoning checker and the approved use of the unit itself with URA.

Commercial uses in industrial zones are the exception, time-limited and capped, not the rule.

By zone. PropKaki's industrial register, by the Master Plan 2025 zone at each address:

A property here is an address, which may hold many strata units; a few buildings may appear twice. Zone = the Master Plan 2025 land-use zone at its location.

The Master Plan's Business Park zone is for "business park operations": "At least 85% of the total floor area shall be used for any combination of business park operations ... and other permitted ancillary uses", and "Not more than 15% of the total floor area shall be used for uses permissible under White Zone" (URA).

By building. Every B1 and B2 sale over September 2023 to August 2026, by URA's property type and whether the sale was a strata unit or the land:

To check a building's zone and plot ratio, use PropKaki's zoning checker; for its zoning and the URA caveats on record, the industrial property directory.

Most industrial buyers are buying a strata unit in a multiple-user factory, in either zone.

The raw gap mixes three things. B1 and B2 trades differ a lot in where they are and how much lease they have left:

URA industrial caveats, September 2023 to August 2026, joined to PropKaki's register; B1 and B2 zones only. The lease rows leave out leases with an option term, such as "30+30 yrs".

Hold those differences equal and most of the gap goes. For multiple-user factory strata units, most of the sales in both zones:

A group is a lease band, a planning area, or both, with at least 10 trades in each zone. Within a group the ratio is the median B1 price per sq ft over the median B2 one; across groups it is weighted by trades.

Holding the lease band alone takes the ratio from 1.40 to 1.04: that alone removes most of the raw gap. Every like-for-like group, across all building types:

Same planning area, building type and 10-year band of lease left, at least 10 trades of each zone. The numbers in brackets are the developments behind each side: in 7 of the 12 groups, one side is a single development.

The median group ratio was 1.05, and the ratio ran from 0.48 to 1.39. The result moves with how closely the trades are matched:

Each row keeps the planning-area and building-type match. Holding the sale year matters because prices rose over the window; quarter-adjusted prices divide each trade's price per sq ft by the median of all B1 and B2 trades that quarter.

However the trades are matched, B1's premium is far below the raw 52%, and in some groups B2 was dearer. The planning area and the lease left say more about a unit's price than its zone does.

Location and lease, not the zone, drive most of the price gap.

Median price: URA caveats, September 2023 to August 2026. Duty and tax: IRAS, read on 19 September 2026.

• Buyer's stamp duty. Non-residential rates use the same bands as residential up to "Next $1,500,000 5%", and "the top marginal rate for non-residential properties is 5%" (IRAS).
• GST. "The sale and lease of non-residential properties are subject to GST" (IRAS); "The current GST rate in Singapore is 9%" (IRAS); and "Only GST-registered businesses can charge and claim GST" (IRAS). For a registered buyer: "You can claim GST incurred on the purchase of non-residential properties, subject to the conditions for claiming input tax" (IRAS).
• ABSD. "ABSD rates, BSD rates and SSD rates for residential properties will apply on the residential component"; "the BSD rates for non-residential properties will apply on the acquisition of the non-residential component" (IRAS).
• Seller's stamp duty. "SSD is payable on all industrial properties and industrial lands that are acquired on or after 12 Jan 2013 and disposed of within the holding period": 15% up to one year, 10% up to two, 5% up to three, and none after (IRAS).
• CPF. CPF's housing scheme is for homes: "you can use your CPF Ordinary Account (OA) savings to purchase residential properties in Singapore under the CPF Housing Scheme" (CPF). Neither of CPF's pages on buying property mentions industrial property (CPF).

The zone doesn't change the tax bill; the price and the seller do.

• Commercial. "These are areas used or intended to be used mainly for commercial development", with examples such as "Offices", "Mixed Uses (e.g. Office/ Shopping/Cinema/Hotel/ Flat)", "Commercial School", "Bank" and "Market/Food Centre/ Restaurant" (URA).
• Industrial. At least 60% of the floor area for industrial purposes in B1 (URA); in both B1 and B2, "The quantum of permitted ancillary uses shall not exceed 40% of the total floor area" (URA).
• White. "These are areas used or intended to be used mainly for commercial, hotel, residential, sports & recreational and other compatible uses, or a combination of two or more such uses as a mixed development" (URA).

For seller's stamp duty, what counts as industrial depends on what is being sold. For a unit, "the permitted use is Industrial or for mixed purposes, one of which is industrial, at the date of sale or disposal"; for land or a whole building with its land, "it depends on the zoning of the land under the Master Plan (and not the permitted use of the property)" (IRAS).

Check both the zone and the unit's approved use: together they decide what the space can be used for.

SLA's list of "Types of property for which a foreign person can purchase without approval under the Residential Property Act" includes "Industrial and commercial properties" (SLA). On duty, IRAS: "ABSD rates, BSD rates and SSD rates for residential properties will apply on the residential component", and "the BSD rates for non-residential properties will apply on the acquisition of the non-residential component of the property" (IRAS).

For commercial units and shophouses, see can foreigners buy commercial property.

Proprietary figures. Zones are PropKaki's industrial register: each address matched to its Master Plan 2025 land-use zone by location (5,038 properties; 447 have no zone matched, and a few buildings may appear twice). The zone is the one at the building's location today, not its approved use, and older trades predate the 2025 plan. Prices are URA caveats for industrial property from 2023-09-01 to 2026-08-25 (5,447 caveats), joined to the register by address. Left out: 10 caveats with no address match, 102 on B1 - White properties and 87 in other zones or with no zone matched, leaving 2,575 B1 and 2,673 B2 caveats for the medians and the building types. The lease work also leaves out 115 caveats on leases with an option term, such as "30+30 yrs", and 10 whose tenure could not be read (2,570 B1 and 2,553 B2 remain). Lease left is the lease length minus the years since it started, at the sale date; freehold includes leases of 900 years or more. Like-for-like groups need at least 10 trades of each zone. Stamp duty and GST are IRAS's rates applied to the median price. All dollars are nominal. How we work: PropKaki methodology.

Official rules. Zone definitions are URA's Master Plan 2025 Written Statement; uses, buffers and use quanta are URA's B1 and B2 handbooks (updated 6 June 2026), which report NEA's buffers; duty and GST are IRAS's; CPF use is CPF's; foreign ownership is SLA's. All were read on 19 September 2026.

What we have not claimed: that any particular use is approved for any particular unit (that needs URA's and the relevant agencies' approval), the value of any unit, or where prices go next. This is a practical explainer, not financial, legal or planning advice.