BCA Registered Contractor Check.

CRS vs CoreTrade — the two BCA registrations that matter

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) operates two separate registers that a bca contractor may be listed on, and confusing them is the single most common procurement error at tender-shortlisting stage. The Contractors Registration System (CRS) is a firm-level registration: the bca contractor is registered at one or more workheads with a grade attached, and each workhead + grade combination carries a bca workhead tendering limit — the maximum contract value the firm may bid for on public-sector construction projects. A BCA registered contractor cannot legitimately tender for a public-sector project above the bca workhead tendering limit its grade authorises, regardless of past private-sector experience.

CoreTrade is a separate, tradesperson-level registration under the same authority. A bca coretrade certificate is issued to an individual construction tradesperson who has passed the trade test and skills assessment, and the certificate travels with the person rather than the firm. Site personnel keep a bca coretrade certificate on hand for inspection; a bca coretrade certificate download from BCA e-Services provides the current, valid PDF. Firms use the bca coretrade expiry date check free pdf pattern from BCA e-Services to audit their own tradesperson roster before a project starts — expiring cards during a project are a common cause of manpower-quota shortfalls. The www bca coretrade result lookup on the BCA site returns the pass/fail record for a specific tradesperson application; this is what a firm references when auditing whether a new hire is CoreTrade-qualified.

How to verify a BCA registered contractor on the BCA Directory

Open the BCA Directory search on bca.gov.sg (the official directory of every bca contractor holding a current CRS registration). Search by firm name or UEN — a legitimately registered BCA registered contractor's UEN resolves to a directory entry showing the exact workheads and grades the firm carries, the additional workhead information, and the registration expiry. Confirm the workhead matches the scope of the tender (a firm registered at CW01 for General Building is not authorised for CW02 Civil Engineering, and vice-versa), confirm the grade covers the tender value against the published bca workhead tendering limit table, and confirm the registration has not lapsed. A "BCA registered contractor" who cannot show a current directory entry is either newly applied and not yet accepted, has lapsed, or is misrepresenting the registration entirely.

For a BCA registered contractor whose CRS entry is current, the bca a1 contractor list identifies firms holding A1 grade under a workhead — historically the top tendering tier for very large public-sector projects (an A1 bca contractor on the bca a1 contractor list carries the highest bca workhead tendering limit under CRS). A procurement team shortlisting for a project of that size will filter the directory by grade first; the bca a1 contractor list is that filter's result. Firms carrying bca cr06 licences (the general contractor licence issued under CRS) frequently appear across multiple workheads; a bca cr06 filing is separate from the workhead registration and is checked in parallel.

CoreTrade evidence workflow — expiry checks and result lookup

For a firm auditing its own trades roster, three BCA e-Services actions form the practical CoreTrade evidence workflow: a bca coretrade certificate download for each tradesperson (the current-valid PDF); a bca coretrade expiry date check free pdf pull across the whole roster to flag cards expiring inside the project window; and the www bca coretrade result search to confirm a specific tradesperson's application outcome before a new hire begins on site. Running the bca coretrade certificate download + bca coretrade expiry date check free pdf batch monthly is the least-friction way to catch expiring cards early, and the www bca coretrade result search protects the firm from a mis-declared new hire — an unverified card holder is a manpower-quota liability regardless of trade skill. Where the firm holds a bca cr06 general contractor licence, the CoreTrade workflow sits alongside the bca cr06 filing rather than replacing it; a bca cr06 filing covers the firm's licensing basis and the CoreTrade cards cover the individual trades. A bca coretrade certificate download that returns "no record" or an expired card is the signal to re-check the www bca coretrade result search under the correct NRIC — often the mismatch is a name-transliteration or NRIC-suffix input error, and repeating the bca coretrade expiry date check free pdf pull under the corrected identifier resolves it.

Workhead grades, tendering limits and specialist requirements

A BCA registered contractor's grade at each workhead directly determines the bca workhead tendering limit for that workhead. Grades run from C3 at the smallest end through B2, B1, A2 and A1 at the top; the bca workhead tendering limit rises at each grade, and each grade also carries paid-up capital, past-project value and manpower requirements that a bca contractor must evidence during application and again at bca license renewal. A firm targeting A1 status is committing to sustained public-sector project volume; a firm at C3 or B2 is scoped for smaller works, and a public-sector procurement team enforces the bca workhead tendering limit strictly during tender evaluation.

Specialist workheads carry their own requirements. The bca me05 requirements govern the ME05 (Mechanical and Electrical — Fire Prevention and Protection Systems) workhead — a bca contractor targeting ME05 must meet specific technical-personnel qualifications, past-project experience thresholds, and paid-up capital that BCA publishes on its own workhead pages. The bca me05 requirements are updated from time to time and any firm preparing an application or a bca license renewal at ME05 should cite the current requirement schedule on the BCA site directly rather than a secondhand summary — the bca me05 requirements page is the primary source, and BCA occasionally updates the paid-up capital thresholds and technical-personnel ratios. This resource does not quote a specific figure that would date the moment the schedule is next revised — see NAMED GAP below.

NAMED GAP: current bca workhead tendering limit values, bca me05 requirements paid-up capital thresholds and CoreTrade renewal fees are BCA-published statutory figures updated periodically; this page deliberately does not quote a specific figure that may date. For a bca contractor preparing a tender bid or a bca license renewal, cite the current bca.gov.sg workhead schedule and the current BCA e-Services fee page directly.

Licence renewal — cycle, evidence, and the bca licence a firm carries

The bca license renewal cycle for a BCA registered contractor runs on the schedule BCA publishes for each workhead — most workheads renew on a three-year cycle, but a bca contractor should verify its own workhead's cycle on the BCA e-Services portal and start the bca license renewal work well ahead of expiry. The bca license renewal evidence required commonly includes current paid-up capital, past-project value evidence for the cycle, current technical-personnel qualifications and Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) compliance for the firm. A lapsed bca licence removes the firm from the BCA Directory search results, and any tender bid submitted against a lapsed bca licence is void — even where the firm was previously in good standing. For BCA registered contractor firms operating in the interior fit-out and renovation space, the CaseTrust renovation contractor accreditation is a separate consumer-protection scheme run by the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) alongside RCMA; a casetrust renovation contractor accreditation covers the firm's dealings with private homeowners in particular and does not substitute for a BCA registered contractor's CRS registration on public-sector work.

For firms shipping to both public-sector and private-residential markets, the CaseTrust renovation contractor accreditation and the BCA registered contractor CRS registration are additive not substitutive — the casetrust renovation contractor scheme addresses consumer disputes on private renovation contracts, while the BCA registered contractor CRS entry authorises public-sector tendering. A firm marketing itself as both a casetrust renovation contractor and a BCA registered contractor is signalling coverage of both buyer types; a firm holding only one should be honest with the other's procurement team about the scope.

For developers and main contractors marketing to BCA registered firms

For a Singapore developer, main contractor or facilities-management firm building a subcontractor panel, the practical marketing angle is the same as the property-agent-verification pattern already covered on our Singapore property developer marketing hub: publish your own firm's BCA registered contractor CRS number, workhead + grade table, the bca coretrade certificate roster, and the bca a1 contractor list status (if held) prominently on the site, because that is the specific compliance evidence procurement teams and consultants search for. A firm that publishes its BCA registered contractor CRS details clearly is competing on procurement-team confidence, and that is the exact buyer job this page's target queries reveal. For a firm entering the CoreTrade skilled-tradesperson layer, plan the shoot around trades on site with valid CoreTrade cards — that is the substantive proof, and shakalakaa produces the video and content that carries it credibly.