Housing and Development Act
(CHAPTER 129)

(Original Enactment: Ordinance 11 of 1959)

REVISED EDITION 1997
(30th May 1997)
An Act to constitute a Housing and Development Board for Singapore.
[1st February 1960]
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Short title
1.  This Act may be cited as the Housing and Development Act.
Interpretation
2.—(1)  In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —
“authorised occupier” means a person who is —
(a)named in an application made to the Board as the person who intends to reside in the flat, house or other living accommodation sold or to be sold by the Board under Part IV; or
(b)authorised in writing by the Board to reside therein except that, where such a person has entered, stayed or remained in Singapore in contravention of any provision of any written law relating to immigration, he shall be deemed not to be an authorised occupier from the date of contravention;
“Board” means the Housing and Development Board established under section 3;
“building” includes any house, flat, hut, shed, roofed enclosure or other accommodation, whether used for the purpose of human habitation or otherwise, and also any wall, fence, platform, staging gate, post, pillar, paling, frame hoarding, slip, dock, wharf, pier, jetty, landing-stage or bridge, or any structure or foundation connected to the foregoing;
“buildings or works” includes waste materials, refuse and other matters deposited on land, and reference to the erection or construction of buildings or works shall be construed accordingly;
“building operations” includes any building or erectional operations, rebuilding operations, structural alterations of or additions to buildings and other operations normally undertaken by a person carrying on business as a builder and the making of access roads, railways, waterworks, electrical installations and any road works preliminary or incidental to the erection of buildings;
“Central Provident Fund Board” means the Central Provident Fund Board constituted under section 3 of the Central Provident Fund Act (Cap. 36);
“Chairman” means the Chairman of the Board;
“Chief Executive Officer” means the Chief Executive Officer appointed under section 38;
“Collector” means any officer appointed by the Minister for Law to be a Collector of Land Revenue or a Deputy Collector of Land Revenue;
“commercial property” means any flat, house or building or any part thereof which is permitted to be used pursuant to the Planning Act (Cap. 232) or any other written law for the purpose of carrying on any business or which is lawfully so used;
“common property” means so much of the developed land and all parts of the building as are not comprised in the flats in a building;
“developed land” means any land of the Board upon which a building has been erected;
“flat” means a horizontal stratum of any building or part thereof, whether the stratum or part is on one or more levels or is partially or wholly below the surface of the ground;
“Housing and Urban Development Company” means the Housing and Urban Development Company (Private) Limited incorporated in Singapore under the Companies Act (Cap. 50);
“Jurong Town Corporation” means the Jurong Town Corporation established by the Jurong Town Corporation Act (Cap. 150);
“lease” includes an agreement for a lease;
“Master Plan” has the same meaning as in the Planning Act (Cap. 232);
“Municipal Provident Fund” means the Municipal Provident Fund established by the City Council under the provisions of the repealed Municipal Ordinance (Cap. 133, 1936 Ed.);
“owner”, in relation to any property sold by the Board, includes a person who has purchased a leasehold interest in the property and also includes a purchaser under an agreement for a lease.
[13/75; 25/79; 12/82; 21/86]
(2)  References in this Act to a flat, house or other living accommodation shall be construed to include references to the land appurtenant to the flat, house or other living accommodation.
(3)  In any other written law and in any other document whatsoever, unless the context otherwise requires, any reference to the Singapore Improvement Trust shall, except in respect of its planning functions, be construed as a reference to the Board.