Since 9 December 2024, ACRA’s Contact Address regime has been fully in effect. A contact address is the address ACRA shows in its public records for an individual, instead of displaying that person’s residential address.
The regime is intended to give individuals more privacy without making them unreachable. Your residential address still has to be kept with ACRA, but your contact address is normally the address the public sees.
In short: a valid contact address must be in the same country as your residential address, must be a physical place where you can be reached, and cannot be a P.O. Box. There is no ACRA filing fee to register or update one.
What is an ACRA Contact Address?
An ACRA Contact Address is a public-facing address for an individual connected to a registered business entity. It replaced the old Alternate Address regime when the new Bizfile portal launched on 9 December 2024.
For company officers such as directors and company secretaries, ACRA displays the contact address in its public records instead of the residential address. The residential address remains on ACRA’s records and is still used for official correspondence.
A contact address can be the same as your residential address if you are comfortable using it publicly. If you want to keep your home address out of current public records, you may provide another address that satisfies ACRA’s requirements.
Who needs to provide a Contact Address?
ACRA requires individual position holders to provide a contact address. For companies, this includes people such as directors and company secretaries. The same framework also applies to individual position holders in other business structures, including LLPs, LPs, sole proprietorships and partnerships.
Individual shareholders can also have a contact address recorded with ACRA. Where a shareholder does not hold a position in a live local entity, their particulars are updated through the separate Update shareholder information eService. Corporate shareholders do not need a personal contact address.
If a person is both a shareholder and a position holder, the position-holder route takes precedence for updating their personal particulars.
What makes a Contact Address valid?
ACRA’s current requirements are straightforward. Your contact address must:
- be in the same country as your residential address;
- be a physical place where you can receive messages and be contacted;
- not be a P.O. Box; and
- be an address that genuinely works for you, rather than an address chosen only to keep your residential address private.
Examples can include your office or a Corporate Service Provider’s office, provided the address actually meets ACRA’s physical-reachability requirement.
One Contact Address per person
If you hold positions in more than one entity, you cannot choose a different contact address for each company or business. ACRA requires the same contact address to be used across all entities where you hold a position.
For example, if you are a director of two companies and also a partner in an LLP, the same contact address should be used for all three appointments.
Can multiple position holders share the same address?
Yes. Multiple position holders can use the same business address as their contact address, as long as each person can genuinely be physically located or contacted there.
Foreign directors and foreign position holders
This is where the same-country rule becomes important. A foreign position holder whose residential address is overseas cannot simply use the Singapore company’s address as their contact address if they are not physically present there.
ACRA specifically states that foreign position holders cannot use an entity’s Singapore address as their contact address when they are not physically present at that address. Their contact address must also be in the same country as their residential address.
Contact Address vs Residential Address vs Registered Office
These addresses serve different purposes and should not be confused.
| Address | Whose address? | Main purpose | Public? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact Address | An individual | Public-facing address where the individual can be contacted | Yes |
| Residential Address | An individual | ACRA’s underlying residential record and address for official correspondence | Normally not shown in current public records when a valid contact address is available |
| Registered Office | The company or entity | The entity’s official Singapore office address | Yes |
A company’s registered office is therefore not automatically a valid personal contact address for its directors or shareholders. The contact-address requirements still have to be satisfied for the individual.
If you are deciding what address your company itself should use, our guide on using a home address as a company registered office explains the separate registered-office rules. We also provide a Singapore registered address service, but a registered-office service should not be assumed to double as a personal ACRA Contact Address unless the individual requirements are separately met.
What happened to the old Alternate Address?
The Alternate Address regime was abolished when the Contact Address regime took effect on 9 December 2024.
During the transition:
- existing Alternate Addresses were automatically converted into Contact Addresses; and
- where an individual did not have an Alternate Address, the residential address held by ACRA became the default Contact Address.
The old S$40 Alternate Address filing fee is therefore no longer relevant. Under the current Contact Address regime, ACRA does not charge a fee to register or update a contact address.
The change also does not mean every historical document filed before 9 December 2024 has been rewritten. The regime governs the current registers and filings from commencement; older filed documents may still reflect information that was public under the previous regime.
How to update your Contact Address in Bizfile
The correct Bizfile transaction depends on whether the person is a position holder or only a shareholder.
For directors, company secretaries and other position holders
Use ACRA’s Update position holder information eService.
- Log in to Bizfile as a Business User through Corppass.
- Open the Manage menu.
- Select Update position holder information.
- Start a new transaction and select the relevant position holder.
- Enter the updated contact address and the effective date of the change.
- Review the information carefully and submit the filing.
ACRA currently lists this filing as free with immediate processing in the normal case.
For local business entities, changes to position-holder particulars should be lodged within 14 days from the date of change to avoid late-lodgement penalties. Foreign companies generally have 30 days.
If you need a broader walkthrough of the portal, see our ACRA Bizfile guide.
For shareholders who are not position holders
Use the Update shareholder information eService instead.
ACRA’s current process allows authorised officers, Corporate Service Providers and authorised Group of Companies users to update a shareholder’s particulars. The filing can include the shareholder’s residential address, contact address and contact information.
If the shareholder is also a position holder in a live local entity, use the position-holder update route instead of treating the person as a shareholder-only update.
Can a Corporate Service Provider update the Contact Address for you?
Yes. A Corporate Service Provider can file a contact-address update on behalf of a client where authorised to do so.
For position holders, ACRA states that a CSP can file the contact address once and the same address will be updated across the associated entities where that individual holds positions. The CSP may ask for proof of address before filing.
This is useful where a director or secretary holds appointments in several companies and wants the records kept consistent.
What happens if your Contact Address does not work?
A contact address is not meant to be a privacy placeholder that nobody can actually use to reach you.
The legislation gives the Registrar power to stop excluding an individual’s residential address from public disclosure where the contact address is ineffective and the individual cannot be reached there. In practical terms, use an address that genuinely satisfies ACRA’s requirements and keep it current.
Frequently asked questions
Is there an ACRA fee to provide or update a Contact Address?
No. ACRA currently charges no fee to register or update a contact address.
Can I use my residential address as my Contact Address?
Yes. ACRA allows you to use the same address for both. The trade-off is that your contact address is public, so using your residential address means it will be visible in current public records.
Can I use my company’s registered office as my Contact Address?
Only if the address independently satisfies the personal Contact Address requirements. It is not valid merely because it is the company’s registered office.
In particular, the address must be in the same country as your residential address and must be a place where you can genuinely be contacted.
Can I use a virtual office as my Contact Address?
Do not assume so. A virtual office or registered-address service is designed primarily for the entity’s registered office and mail handling. A personal Contact Address has its own ACRA requirements, including physical reachability and the same-country rule.
If you are considering using any third-party address as a Contact Address, confirm that it meets ACRA’s current criteria before filing it.
Does ACRA send official letters to the Contact Address?
ACRA’s current guidance states that official letters are sent to the residential address. The Contact Address is the public-facing address shown in ACRA’s records.
Can I use different Contact Addresses for different companies?
Not if you are a position holder in those entities. ACRA requires one contact address per person across the entities where that person holds a position.
What if my Contact Address changes?
Update it promptly through the appropriate Bizfile transaction. For a local entity’s position holder, the change should generally be lodged within 14 days from the date of change.
Need help updating your ACRA records?
We are an ACRA-registered Corporate Service Provider and can help review the correct filing route and update company or position-holder particulars where appropriate.
If you are unsure whether your current address setup is correct, contact us with your UEN and the change you need to make. We can help you work out which Bizfile transaction applies before anything is filed.
