Rebuilding a Good Class Bungalow

What makes it a Good Class Bungalow

A Good Class Bungalow is defined by where it is and the land it stands on. It has to sit in one of the gazetted Good Class Bungalow areas, where only detached houses are allowed, on a plot of at least 1,400 square metres, 18.5 metres wide and 30 metres deep. The plot is measured net of land set aside for road or drainage reserves.

A plot that is already slightly short of 1,400 square metres, because land was vested for road widening, can be considered for an infill bungalow if the shortfall is under 10%. Anything further below the minimum cannot be redeveloped as a Good Class Bungalow. These are URA's published guidelines as they stand; URA can depart from them case by case, so your qualified person confirms what applies to your plot before anything is drawn.

Height: two storeys, used well

Good Class Bungalow areas are two-storey areas. Under the envelope control, the overall height in a two-storey area is capped at 12 metres, and an attic can sit within that envelope. A basement goes below.

That makes a Good Class Bungalow wide rather than tall. The design work goes into the plan, the section within two storeys, and how the house uses the land around it, rather than into stacking floors.

Coverage and setbacks

For applications submitted from 1 March 2025, a Good Class Bungalow can cover up to 45% of its plot overall, with a 35% sub-control measured up to the external facade, which counts balconies, planters and roof terraces, and half of a car porch roof. Sun-shading elements such as eaves, ledges, trellises and fins are excluded from the sub-control.

Setbacks are generous: terraces and patios at least 5.1 metres from the road reserve line and 3 metres from common boundaries, with raised pools and car porches also set 3 metres back. On a plot this size, they frame the garden rather than squeeze the house.

Planning a house on a plot this size

The land is the opportunity, and the best Good Class Bungalow plans treat the garden as part of the house:

• Courtyards and wings that bring light and air into a wide plan and give each part of the house its own outlook.
• A basement that earns its depth: parking, a gallery, a cellar or a gym, lit and ventilated rather than buried.
• Mature trees kept where possible, because they cannot be replaced in a construction programme, and some are protected.
• Separation by design, so a large household can share the main rooms and still have private wings.

Because a Good Class Bungalow rebuild is a long, considered project, the feasibility study matters even more than usual. Land and feasibility explains what it covers, and Rebuilding a bungalow covers the detached-house rules outside the Good Class Bungalow areas.