Sub-Dividing Landed House into 2 semi detached

[leechaorui 2]

Recently, I bought a house sited on a rectangular land with a frontage of about 15m and has a depth of about 43m.  Thinking of rebuilding it into a pair of semi detached.  The house is under the name of 2 persons.  Will this attract development charge from the government if the newly rebuilt house is split between the 2 persons and each own one semi detached house?  If development charge is to be applied, how much is the charge and how is it calculated?

Edited July 21, 2021 by leechaorui

[snoozee 97]

Semi detached houses need minimum frontage width of 8m. Since you have only 15m, you can’t subdivide into 2 plots for semi-d houses as you can't get the 8m width. If your plot is 16m wide then can subdivide

Edited July 21, 2021 by snoozee

[leechaorui 2]

Oh dear... it is just a little short of the needed 16m.  Not sure if an appeal can be successful as the road outside is not a busy main road.

[snoozee 97]

9 minutes ago, leechaorui said:

Oh dear... it is just a little short of the needed 16m.  Not sure if an appeal can be successful as the road outside is not a busy main road.

unlikely to be able to appeal. land size has nothing to do with the road outside.
of cos you can always ask your neighbour if they willing to sell. assuming same sized plot then with total 30m frontage, you can build into 2 corner terrace and 2 terrace houses.

Edited July 21, 2021 by snoozee

[yoongf 11]

It is possible to get thru with the sub division. But...

It has to be a back to back semi D and the building layout is L shaped.

The front unit is a 10m wide unit, and the rear semi D is accessed by a 5m wide long driveway.

However, the front unit will hv a tiny footprint of 6m wide x 12-15m depth. 

[snoozee 97]

1 hour ago, yoongf said:

It is possible to get thru with the sub division. But...

It has to be a back to back semi D and the building layout is L shaped.

The front unit is a 10m wide unit, and the rear semi D is accessed by a 5m wide long driveway.

However, the front unit will hv a tiny footprint of 6m wide x 12-15m depth. 

Semi-d need minimum plot size of 200sqm. So the front plot needs to be at least 20m deep if the width is 10m wide.

the back unit footprint would also be small since I guess the “frontage” would be along the 43m depth and building setback line taken from there.
 

Basically 100sqm will be wasted as driveway 

unless the land is being fronted by roads on front and side, then will make things much easier since can try to apply to create new access opening. 

[leechaorui 2]

The land is slightly more than 6000 sqft.  The house in front of me has rebuilt into a pair of semi detached and they don't seem to be wider than 16m.  Just thinking whether an appeal would help when the it is just short of the minimum frontage by about merely half a metre

Edited July 21, 2021 by leechaorui

[snoozee 97]

12 minutes ago, leechaorui said:

The land is slightly more than 6000 sqft.  The house in front of me has rebuilt into a pair of semi detached and they don't seem to be wider than 16m.  Just thinking whether an appeal would help when the it is just short of the minimum frontage by about merely half a metre

You can always write in to URA to ask but I don’t think they would budge. The rule of 8m frontage for semi-d and minimum 200sqm has been there for years.

If you have not done a topo survey, get it done first to confirm your plot size. Just because your opposite neighbor plot can do it doesn’t mean you can because plot sizes can vary in nearby areas. 

[snoozee 97]

is your house a detached house or semi-detached house? from your previous posting, you mentioned you bought a 6060sqf semi-detached house.

so if you currently have a semi-detached house and you want to develop your plot into 2 semi-detached houses, apart from your own plot's conditions, you will also need to check whether your currently attached neighbour's plot is big enough to become a detached house or not. basically the frontage must be at least 10m and plot size of at least 400sqm. if your neighbour's plot can't fulfill these conditions, URA won't allow you to detach from your neighbour as well.

[yoongf 11]

10 hours ago, leechaorui said:

The land is slightly more than 6000 sqft.  The house in front of me has rebuilt into a pair of semi detached and they don't seem to be wider than 16m.  Just thinking whether an appeal would help when the it is just short of the minimum frontage by about merely half a metre

There are many examples of odd shaped lots that were successfully sub divided. I believe the criteria is not so much the frontage width, but the physical building cannot be less than 6m wide. If somehow, u can reorientate the structure to have min 6m each, it can be accomodated.

[snoozee 97]

27 minutes ago, yoongf said:

There are many examples of odd shaped lots that were successfully sub divided. I believe the criteria is not so much the frontage width, but the physical building cannot be less than 6m wide. If somehow, u can reorientate the structure to have min 6m each, it can be accomodated.

yes, you should be right that URA is more concerned about the building width of at least 6m wide and not the actual plot width.

There are leeway given for irregular plot sizes with examples given on the URA website but URA still requires an average plot width of 8m for the plot in order to qualify as a semi-d.

If TS has a regular shaped plot then he can't apply the regulations used for irregular sized plots. So the only best bet is to use your suggestion of back to back units if he still intends to sub-divide

[leechaorui 2]

20 hours ago, snoozee said:

is your house a detached house or semi-detached house? from your previous posting, you mentioned you bought a 6060sqf semi-detached house.

so if you currently have a semi-detached house and you want to develop your plot into 2 semi-detached houses, apart from your own plot's conditions, you will also need to check whether your currently attached neighbour's plot is big enough to become a detached house or not. basically the frontage must be at least 10m and plot size of at least 400sqm. if your neighbour's plot can't fulfill these conditions, URA won't allow you to detach from your neighbour as well.

Yes, his frontage is more than 10m and his land size is more than 6200 sqft

[leechaorui 2]

11 hours ago, snoozee said:

yes, you should be right that URA is more concerned about the building width of at least 6m wide and not the actual plot width.

There are leeway given for irregular plot sizes with examples given on the URA website but URA still requires an average plot width of 8m for the plot in order to qualify as a semi-d.

If TS has a regular shaped plot then he can't apply the regulations used for irregular sized plots. So the only best bet is to use your suggestion of back to back units if he still intends to sub-divide

My land is quite rectangular but it is actually a trapezium shape

[snoozee 97]

1 hour ago, leechaorui said:

My land is quite rectangular but it is actually a trapezium shape

If your front width is 15m but your back is 17m or more, you could carve into 2 plots. One plot of regular 8m width throughout and the other plot with 7m front and 9m wide at the rear. The 2nd plot will give you an average of 8m throughout which still can meet requirements. Not sure you have a detached house or semi-d as you didn’t confirm but if you have semi-d, you need to know if your neighbour can qualify to become a detached house or not as well.

anyway, do a topo survey to confirm all dimensions and you can work out from there

[leechaorui 2]

14 hours ago, snoozee said:

If your front width is 15m but your back is 17m or more, you could carve into 2 plots. One plot of regular 8m width throughout and the other plot with 7m front and 9m wide at the rear. The 2nd plot will give you an average of 8m throughout which still can meet requirements. Not sure you have a detached house or semi-d as you didn’t confirm but if you have semi-d, you need to know if your neighbour can qualify to become a detached house or not as well.

anyway, do a topo survey to confirm all dimensions and you can work out from there

Both my neighbour and I are a pair of semi detached.  The back of our house is facing the fence of a big bungalow.  Hence, the only way out was through the front.  I think my frontage is about 15m.  Very sayang to be just slightly short of the requirement.