The Urban Renewal Bill 2025 is up for debate in parliament this week, after the second reading was deferred a few months ago. We had previously written on this subject in the Aug 5, 2024, issue (“Urban renewal is good but outcomes hinge on integrity and good governance”) when the proposed Urban Renewal Act (proposed URA) was being drafted.
In a nutshell, the objective of the proposed URA is to make it easier to carry out urban renewal (redevelopment, regeneration and revitalisation) projects — for instance, for abandoned, neglected and mismanaged buildings. The proposed URA seeks to lower the consent threshold from the current 100% to 80% for projects carried out by the federal or state executive committee. Notably (and extremely oddly), the consent threshold for strata owner-driven initiatives to redevelop their projects remains at 100% (an almost impossible outcome). This inconsistency on its own highlights a serious question of intent (which affects trust), to which we shall return later.
