We often hear about the acronyms CCR, RCR and OCR bandied about in real estate marketing materials. They are supposed to represent the main regions in Singapore, and has its roots in the way the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) segregates its major planning regions. These abbreviations are defined as follows:
- CCR – Core Central Region
- RCR – Rest of Central Region
- OCR – Outside Central Region
CCR comprises postal districts 9,10, 11, Downtown Core and Sentosa.
RCR refers to the rest of Central Region which are outside CCR.
OCR refers to the planning areas which are outside the Central Region.
Notice that the Central Region is referenced in all three region names? It shows that Central Region is a main point of reference and all three regions reference it as a subset or a complement (where OCR is the entire island of Singapore minus the Central Region). With this mind, the taxonomy should be as follows:
Singapore
Central Region
CCR
RCR
Outside Central Region (OCR)
Below is a quote from URA website:
Planning Region: Singapore is divided into 5 areas called planning regions to facilitate the planning of the use and development of land for the whole of Singapore. The 5 regions are Central Region, East Region, North East Region, North Region and West Region. Each Planning Region consists of several planning areas which are further divided into sub-zones. A Development Guide Plan (DGP) is prepared for each planning area (see Development Guide Plan).
So as you can see, OCR is actually an amalgamation of the four regions: East Region, North East Region, North Region and West Region.
Please see the high resolution map below for the boundary delineating the Central Region (the black line) and the highlighted parts of the Central Region making up Core Central Region (Downtown Core Planning Area in blue, Sentosa in pink and Postal Districts 9, 10, 11 in orange).
Source: URA
The map below shows the Central Region in relation to other planning regions. OCR is essentially the rest of the planning regions outside Central Region collectively.
The red boundary demarcates Singapore’s city centre, known as Central Area in URA’s Master Plan, and is a contiguous sub-region within the Central Region representing the business and finance hub of Singapore. It comprises the following 11 Planning Areas: Outram, Museum, Newton, River Valley, Singapore River, Marina South, Marina East, Straits View, Rochor, Orchard and Downtown Core. More infomation about Planning Areas can be found here: URA Planning Areas and Subzones
Source: URA
Thanks Winnie for your comment. Indeed it is strange that Sentosa should be made part of the Core Central Region (CCR) since it is an offshore island (albeit with a land connection). But that is how URA is zoning the CCR currently, lumping 3 non-adjacent areas in the Central Region together to become CCR:
I can only hazard to guess that these 3 areas are sitting on the choicest of prime land and hence demands closer attention from the planning authorities in terms of planning and reporting.
I have updated the Central Region map above to give a better idea of this arrangement, as it shows the 3 components of the CCR as sub-regions within the Central Region.
Similarly, Novena, by virtue of the fact that it belongs to District 11, is part of the CCR.
Outram, Chinatown and Rochor are all part of the Rest of Central Region (RCR) marked in white colour.
The red line on the second map (with white background) showing the 5 planning regions actually demarcates the Central Area, not CCR. I have attached another map of the Central Region with a focus on the Central Area. You will notice that the Downtown Core is also part of this Central Area.
Hope this helps!
Why is Sentosa and Novena CCR? While Outram, Chinatown and Rochor area are OCR? Can’t those drawn within Red Line CCR? It does not tally with this map which is obvious the Central core are.