The Municipal, Rural Affairs, and Housing Ministry has rolled out updated residential construction regulations for villas, residential, commercial, and administrative buildings, according to its Residential Building Construction Requirements Regulation (pdf).

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An overview: The guidelines cover general rules such as compliance with local regulations, parking standards, building facades, and setbacks — as well as specific guidelines for each type of residential and commercial buildings. They also mandate hiring only ministry-accredited engineers and contractors to carry out construction work.

Bigger villas? The regulations allow for the building of additional basement floors for residential villas, increasing permissible building area for their ground and first floor to 75% from an earlier 70% or total land area. Floors in villas could also be divided into two separate residential units provided that a parking space is available for each unit.

A focus on parking space: Each residential villa spanning an area of 400 sqm or less must provide a parking space within the residence, while bigger villas must provide two parking spaces. Multi-story residential buildings would also be allowed to use the ground floor for parking spaces without counting that in the total number of permitted floors.

BACKGROUND- The guidelines dovetail with the draft regulations on building code violations introduced by the government earlier this year. It aims to enforce building standards by categorizing violations and imposing penalties — such as fines or suspensions — on those who fail to adhere to the building code.

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