Since 30 September 2025, BCA can require the owner of an energy-intensive existing building of 5,000 square metres or more to fix it. On receiving an audit notice the owner has 90 days to appoint a qualified professional, one year to submit an energy audit and an improvement plan, and three years from that submission to deliver a 10 per cent cut in energy use intensity against the building's own three-year average. Fewer than 100 buildings were caught at first implementation.
Singapore's building rules used to work on new construction and major retrofits: meet the standard when you build or substantially change the building. The problem is that most of the building stock that will exist in 2030 already exists today, and a badly performing building could simply never trigger a retrofit.
The Mandatory Energy Improvement (MEI) regime closes that gap. It lets the regulator go to a poorly performing existing building and require improvement, whether or not the owner had any plans to do anything.
MEI is the newest of four obligations under the Building Control Act and the Building Control (Environmental Sustainability) Regulations:
Scope. Energy-intensive buildings with a gross floor area of 5,000 square metres or more, across commercial, healthcare, institutional, and sports and recreation uses, and mixed developments containing these uses. Fewer than 100 buildings across four typologies were subject to the regime at first implementation, so this is a targeted instrument rather than a broad one.
The energy-intensity trigger. The gross floor area threshold and the improvement requirement are published, but the specific Energy Use Intensity levels that make a building "energy-intensive" for each building type were not stated in the BCA source reviewed during research. If you need to know whether a particular building qualifies, ask BCA or consult the Code on Mandatory Energy Improvement for Existing Buildings, 1st Edition.
The clock, once a notice is issued:
| Step | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Appoint a qualified professional to conduct an energy audit | Within 90 days of the MEI audit notice |
| Submit the energy audit report, including an Energy Efficiency Improvement Plan (EEIP) | Within 1 year of the notice |
| Implement measures achieving a 10 per cent reduction from the average Energy Use Intensity of the preceding 3 years | Within 3 years of EEIP submission |
| Maintain the improved performance | For 1 year after completion |
| Submit a maintenance report | Within 3 months after that maintenance year |
Note the timing carefully: the three-year implementation clock runs from the EEIP submission date, not from the audit notice. The practical outer limit is therefore roughly four years from notice to required performance, plus the maintenance year on top.
Who counts as a qualified professional. A BCA-registered Energy Auditor or Professional Engineer, referred to in the Code as a "Specified Individual". You cannot use in-house staff who lack that registration.
Why the maintenance year exists. Without it, an owner could hit the 10 per cent target in the measurement window and then revert. Requiring a year of sustained performance plus a report makes the improvement permanent rather than performative.
The 10 per cent target is measured against the average Energy Use Intensity of that building over the preceding three years, not against an industry benchmark. This is fairer than a universal standard, since an already efficient building is not penalised for its starting point, but it does mean a building that has been allowed to deteriorate has an easier 10 per cent to find.
If you own or manage a building over 5,000 square metres in a covered use class, do not wait for a notice. Pull your last three years of energy data and calculate your own Energy Use Intensity trend. If it is poor, the cheapest time to find the 10 per cent is before a notice starts a 90-day clock.
Items the aggregator matched to this obligation.
Over 150 industry professionals attended the SGBC Seminar on Navigating the BCA Green Mark Version 7 scheme this afternoon, gleaning valuable insights and engaging discussions on the future of Singapore’s built environment. We extend our sincere gratitude to SGBC Member and...
15 September 2026
Owners of energy-intensive existing buildings of 5,000 square metres gross floor area or more in commercial, healthcare, institutional, and sports and recreation uses, and mixed developments containing them.
Gross floor area of 5,000 square metres or more, plus an energy-intensity trigger whose numeric levels per building type are set out in the Code on Mandatory Energy Improvement rather than on BCA's summary page.
https://www1.bca.gov.sg/sustainability/legislation-on-environmental-sustainability-for-buildings/existing-buildings/mandatory-energy-improvement-mei-regime/
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