SPEECH BY MINISTER CHEE HONG TAT AT THE REDAS 66TH ANNIVERSARY DINNER 2025

A very good evening to all of you. I am delighted to join you tonight to celebrate the 66th anniversary of REDAS.

Over the past 66 years, REDAS has been an invaluable partner in Singapore's nation-building journey. Your members have not only developed key infrastructure and designed iconic landmarks that have put Singapore on the world map, you have also consistently championed industry concerns, promoted innovation, and helped transform Singapore into the thriving city-state it is today.

Finalisation of the Draft Master Plan 2025

I also wish to thank REDAS for your invaluable contributions to the Draft Master Plan 2025. Your active participation and thoughtful feedback have been instrumental in shaping our shared vision for Singapore's future development.

We will be gazetting the finalised Master Plan 2025 in December, which marks the next phase of our urban transformation journey.

a) As we implement these long-term plans and translate our ideas into reality over the next 10 to 15 years, the expertise and partnership with REDAS will be crucial in creating vibrant, sustainable communities for generations to come.

Meeting our housing needs and ensuring a stable housing market

One of our key strategies under Draft Master Plan 2025 is developing more inclusive, affordable and accessible homes. This underscores the Government’s continued commitment to support Singaporeans’ homeownership aspirations.

To meet strong housing demand, we have ramped up the supply of both public and private housing over the past few years, and will continue to sustain a high level of supply over the next few years.

a) From 2025 to 2027, we will launch around 55,000 Build-To-Order flats, up from the earlier target of 50,000, and we will release land for more than 25,000 private residential units through the Government Land Sales programme.

b) In the upcoming GLS programme for the first half of 2026, we will release land to sustain a steady supply injection of about 4,500 new private residential units, which is comparable to the second half of 2025. This will bring the overall supply pipeline to more than 58,000 units.

At the same time, the growth in housing prices has moderated in recent months. We will continue to monitor this carefully, in view of possible interest rate changes.

a) In the HDB resale market, prices have increased at a slower pace of 0.4% over the third quarter of 2025, which is the lowest in the last 5 years. This marks the fourth consecutive quarter of slowing price growth and represents the lowest quarter-on-quarter increase since the second quarter of 2020.

b) In the private housing market, prices increased by around 3% in the first three quarters of 2025, which is broadly the same pace as 2024.

We will monitor the market closely and calibrate the supply of public and private housing, to ensure a stable and sustainable housing market.

(I) Pro-Enterprise Measures for Developers and Enhanced Support for Home buyers

We have also embarked on a government-wide initiative, and this is led by DPM Gan Kim Yong. On the MND side, my colleagues and I have been working in close partnership with the industry including REDAS, to review our policies, our rules, and our processes to cut red tape, support innovative proposals and help businesses to reduce costs and save time. This evening, please allow me to share some examples of what we have done.

(i) Improvements to TOL Process for Showflat Sites

We have heard your feedback that sourcing showflat sites can be challenging and time-consuming. To simplify this process, URA and SLA have pre-identified a list of vacant sites that the relevant agencies have supported for showflat use.

a) Starting from tomorrow, a list of these pre-identified sites will be made available through SLA’s portal for Temporary Occupation Licences.

b) This will enable developers to enjoy significant time savings of about 6 weeks and halve the time it currently takes to obtain approvals from the agencies.

At the same time, we hope that developers will also continue to adopt innovative and land-efficient approaches, such as virtual showflats where applicable, because we do have a limited land supply and we do not have unlimited sites for showflats.

We understand the feedback that you have shared with us, and we want to continue to improve the process. This first move that we have made - I hope it will go some way in helping the industry.

(ii) Updates to CONQUAS for Private Residential Developments

Next, we have worked with industry stakeholders, including REDAS, to enhance the CONQUAS framework for private residential developments to keep pace with new developments.

a) We are refocusing our assessment priorities on functionality and liveability defects that matter most to homeowners, such as water seepage and ponding.

b) Checks on minor finishing issues like stains and tonality will be streamlined. We will remove about 30% of the defects categories that do not impact on liveability significantly.

These enhancements ensure that our construction standards evolve to meet residents’ needs, whilst supporting industry productivity and growth.

Homeowners can look forward to better quality homes with fewer defects that impact functionality and liveability.

At the same time, developers and builders will enjoy time savings through more efficient assessments. Firms with consistently good CONQUAS bandings can enjoy 20% time savings from their assessment durations. So I hope this change will also help our companies to be able to save some time and improve efficiency.

(iii) Enhancing Regulations to Protect Home buyers

In consultation with REDAS, we are taking steps to better safeguard the interests of homeowners. In addition to supporting home buyers in making informed decisions, these changes will benefit developers too because it will ensure a more level playing field.

We will be making the following changes that will take effect early next year:

a) First, we will require developers to furnish additional details on new housing projects in sales documents, including marking the structural walls and refuse chambers in the site plan. This is to provide upfront clarity to home buyers on the layout plans, to reduce possible disagreements between developers and buyers downstream.

b) Second, we will require developers to provide information to prospective home buyers on their track records, including the CONQUAS banding of their past projects. This will allow prospective home buyers to compare developers’ project quality standards and better identify developers that have consistently delivered good quality projects.

c) Third, we will adjust the commencement date for the defects liability period and home buyers’ liability for maintenance charges from the 15th day after the progress payment notice is issued at the Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) stage, to the 35th day. This is to better align the defects liability period to when home buyers take possession of their units, as developers currently have 21 days to deliver possession after they collect the progress payment.

A big thank you to REDAS for your strong support and your constructive feedback and for working together with the MND family to develop these enhancements. They will not only help prospective homeowners make better-informed decisions, but I hope over time, they can also help also raise overall industry standards and give our home buyers greater confidence.

(iv) CORENET X – Streamlining of Plan Fee Computation

We recently made some improvements to the computation of plan fees in CORENET X. Qualified Persons previously computed plan fees separately; by GFA for main buildings and by plan areas for structures. There were challenges in accurately differentiating areas of different types of building works for plan fee computation. This led to more forms and fields, which was inefficient and potentially created more room for errors.

a) As I announced last month, we have streamlined the fee computation methods for new buildings by considering an entire development using a single fee structure instead.

b) Firms can look forward to time and cost savings, and smoother CORENET X submissions.

As developers, you are well placed to encourage your suppliers, contractors and partners to undergo training and to onboard CORENET X early. Currently, BCA has partnered with the Singapore Institute of Architects and Professional Engineers Board to offer enhanced Professional Development Units points for training courses such as open BIM format courses. We hope to do the same with REDAS and your stakeholders, through the training programmes, so that we can prepare our industry stakeholders and have more people come on board early and maximise the benefits of CORENET X

(II) Fostering Innovation and Facilitating Technology to Deliver Better Quality Products

Beyond creating a pro-enterprise environment for our developers, we are championing policies and initiatives that foster innovation and harness the power of technology. This is something that will be an on-going process like the rules review, and I do not think we can say we have reached an end point or there is nothing more we can do. There are always new things coming, new ideas, new innovations. This is an on-going partnership that we want to have with REDAS.

(i) Expansion of the Reduced Fee Score Pilot

Firstly, we are making concerted efforts to address industry concerns about the talent pipeline and business sustainability in the built environment sector.

a) In September last year, we set up the Taskforce for Architectural & Engineering Consultants, co-chaired by my colleague Minister Indranee Rajah and Mr Chaly Mah, Chairman of Surbana Jurong Group with representatives from across the built environment sector.

b) The taskforce received feedback that some consultants were fee-diving and undercutting the sector’s ability to invest in human capital and innovation.

To address this challenge, we will expand the 'Reduced Fee Score' pilot from 1 Dec 2025 to cover all public sector Quality-Fee Method tenders up to $100 million, up from the previous $50 million.

a) This enhancement will further disadvantage people who put in unsustainably low bids in the Government’s tender evaluation and encourage firms to compete on quality and explore innovative solutions when developing the projects, rather than competing solely on price. To be clear, price is one factor, but we don’t want people to keep on competing based on price alone, because the trade-off will be a compromise in other areas. So, while we look at price, we also want to look at quality and other factors and want to encourage our professionals to focus on a broader range of KPIs.

b) I would like to encourage our private developers to join us in promoting quality-based procurement that can help to uplift our built environment. The Government will do our part, but I hope developers can also join us in this effort.

(ii) Adopting Robotics and Automation

We have made significant strides in Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DfMA) adoption. The proportion of works built through DfMA has increased dramatically from just 5% in 2015 to 68% last year – a 14-fold increase. This transformation has not only improved construction efficiency but also enhanced construction quality and reduced our reliance on manual labour.

Going forward, we need to seize more opportunities in Robotics and Automation, or R&A.

We recognise that adopting new technologies requires sizeable upfront investment. We are working to make these technologies more accessible to our companies, especially our SMEs.

a) Earlier this year, we introduced the new Built Environment Technology and Capability grant that provides co-funding support for BE firms to adopt advanced technologies and develop their capabilities.

b) But we also know that some firms may not need to deploy these technologies frequently because of the scale of their operations. So they said, “I can’t quite justify the resources that I have to put aside to be able to acquire them”.

i. One of the areas we are looking at is to help these companies by having an equipment leasing model. For firms, this will provide access to the technology and its benefits, at a more affordable rate. You will not need to cough up so much capital to buy equipment. We will buy it and then we will lease it to you when you need it, and we will share it across a wider range of companies.

c) As developers, I hope you can support this initiative. You can play a part in encouraging your ecosystems, your value chains, to tap on these schemes and adopt these technologies to build better and build faster.

Conclusion

To conclude, I would like to thank REDAS for your close partnership and collaboration over these 66 years. I would also like to congratulate REDAS on your recent logo redesign.

a) Your new logo symbolises your unwavering dedication to shaping a sustainable, forward-looking, and inclusive built environment for Singapore. This is something we hope as Government we can continue to partner you and the industry to achieve this shared vision.

And as we embark on the next phase of our nation's urban transformation, I am confident that this partnership will continue to grow from strength to strength.

Thank you very much everyone, and I wish all of you a wonderful evening ahead.