RENTAL RELIEF FOR SLA TENANTS

MAP
OUT
COMMON MAP INTERFACE FOR ALL.
FEEDBACK
IMPROVING OURSELVES
P2
JAN-MAR’09
WITH FEEDBACK.P3
AT
YOUR SERVICE
PS21 STAR SERVICE AWARD
WINNER SPEAKS.P7
IN
THE LOOP
REGISTERED SURVEYORS GET UPDATES.
P8
RENTAL RELIEF
FOR SLA TENANTS
O
n 22 January 2009, the Minister for Finance, Tharman
Shanmugaratnam announced in the Budget Speech that
“JTC, HDB and SLA will play their part by providing a
15% rental rebate to their tenants and land lessees”. The rebates take
retrospective effect from 1 January 2009 and will be valid for one year. MORE:2,600 benefitting tenants. P4 and 5
IT'S IN THE NEWS
SLA does its part to
support State tenants.
FAST
NEVER
LOST AGAIN
GOOD
SLA AWARDS TENDER FOR INTELLIGENT MAP SYSTEM
VISION
To be a world-class
land authority.
MISSION
To optimise land
resources for the economic
and social development
of Singapore.
CORE VALUES
-
-
Nation First
People Organisation
Innovation & Dynamism
Always Delighting
Customers
Integrity & Professionalism
Land is a quarterly
publication by Singapore
Land Authority (SLA),
55 Newton Road, #12-01,
Revenue House,
Singapore 307987
Copyright © SLA.
All rights reserved. The
contents of Land may be
reproduced subject to
approval of SLA.
www.sla.gov.sg
By Low Chiew Leng
S
LA has awarded the tender for the design, development and maintenance of a government-wide
intelligent map system. The tender, which closed
on 17 November, received four bids from major IT service
providers comprising both local and regional companies,
with track records in geographic information systems
(GIS) solutions. After careful evaluation of the proposals,
SLA has awarded the project to NIIT Technologies, a
global IT solutions provider.
Director Land Asset Management Services and Land
Information Centre, Ng Siau Yong said, “The award of
this tender to NIIT Technologies brings us one step
closer to our aim of creating a common and consistent
map interface for government agencies to build their own
map services using an Application Programming Interface.
SLA expects that NIIT Technologies will be able to come
up with an exceptional solution that will bring in unique
capabilities of intelligent map services for Singaporeans.
The public will soon be able to tap on the rich government
“ NIIT-GIS is proud to be associated
with this unique intelligent map
system of SLA. We will closely
work with ESRI Singapore and will
bring its ESRI India strengths to this
project. NIIT-GIS is committed to the
success of this project and would
deliver a world-class solution by
crafting and designing the best of
the GIS solution for it.”
DR MUKUND RAO
Chief Operating Officer of NIIT Technologies
content and mash it up with their own collection of spatial information to create services and to support enterprises’ business needs, and individuals’ personal needs.”
The project development is expected to take about
nine months to complete, and will be launched in
early 2010.
THUMBS UP FOR SLA’S IFAQS
By Cynthia Augustine
Since April 2008, the anxieties
stemming from these caveat notices
have been considerably reduced
for visitors to our website. As part
ADVISORY
COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN
of its pro-enterprise drive, SLA has
included a category on common ca-
Simon Ong
veat questions under the FrequentlyADVISORY COMMITTEE
Asked-Questions (FAQs) section.
Ng Siau Yong, Gaw Seng
Suan, Wong Chooi Ling
and Susan Koh
The FAQs on caveats posted on
the website address the common
CHIEF EDITOR
concerns of the public which are of-
Margaret Chee
ten raised by callers to SLA’s hotline.
The FAQs also addresses concern,
MAIN WRITER
iFAQs on www.sla.gov.sg
Low Chiew Leng
which a property owner has obtained
as, the validity period of a caveat
who has just obtained a loan by
a mortgage, or the buyer’s bank.
and when to seek legal advice.
Feedback and suggestion;
Subscription orders;
Address changes write
to Margaret Chee at
[email protected]
or call 64983881.
mortgaging his property may experi-
When a caveat is lodged, SLA will
ence an anxiety-ridden moment
send a notice to the property owner
not only found the category on
when he finds an official-looking
and/or the buyer if the buyer’ bank
caveats to be informative and
letter from SLA in his mailbox.
has also lodged a caveat. The notice
clear, she also got a link to how
The contents of the letter, which
informs the recipient that a caveat
to purchase a copy of the caveat.
We would like to thank the
following for permission to
use their photograph:
LHN Group – P4-5
is a caveat notice, may be clear to
has been lodged against the prop-
some, but not to others.
erty specified and that no action is
more ways to reach out to the
required unless it is believed that the
public to allay their concerns
caveat has been wrongfully lodged.
over caveat notices.
TELL US WHAT YOU
LIKE TO READ IN LAND
2
the public does not visualise, such
Every new home buyer or anyone
All paper used in the
production of this
newsletter are recycled.
Caveats are usually lodged by
a buyer of property, the bank from
Karen Tham, a homemaker,
SLA is currently considering
NEW
IMPROVED
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Illustration of remnant land.
CLEAR LANDING
USER-FRIENDLY FAQS ON REMNANT LAND
By Alvin Choo
T
he Government has been encouraging landowners to optimise the use
of remnant State land, by purchasing them for amalgamation with
their adjoining private lands for development.
As a result, SLA receives an increasing volume
of enquires concerning sales of remnant land,
which include queries on processing timeframe,
cost of alienation and probability of successful alienation especially in times of good
economy. Responses to these FAQs are available on SLA’s website.
However, feedback from customers was
that the information is scattered and not wellupdated, with some not easily comprehensible.
This has led to much frustration on the customers’ end. As part of customer service improvement,
the focus was on how to improve the design and
layout of the webpage, to better serve the needs
of our customers.
“ The website is certainly a great improvement over
the old format. The information given is comprehensive
and will assist practitioner like ourselves the much need
assistance and clarity.”
TAN KENG CHIAM
Director & Head of Valuation Advisory Services of Jones Lang LaSalle
An innovative and effective solution was
adopted by having a hybrid design which incorporates features of Tables-of-Contents and internet banking websites with the latter often using
eye-catching icons to market their products.
Hence, SLA has adopted a simple yet
prominent FAQ icon so as to create the same
eye-catching effect to draw the customers’ attention to the wealth of information available. Also,
modeled after the familiar Table-of-Contents, a
“click-and-expand” structure was introduced for
the updated FAQ and “Quick Guide”. This
simple design enhancement facilitates ease of
navigation and provides a clearer, “at-one-glance”
overview of the entire application process.
So far, positive comments have been obtained from external stakeholders who mentioned
that the new website is more user-friendly. CB
Chng, Executive Director of Wing Tai Property Management said “I must congratulate that
you have put in a lot of thoughts in webpage,
the enhanced webpage is user friendly and easy
to navigate.”
This is one initiative that has certainly
delighted customers. SLA will continue to
monitor the website and ensure that the
website is updated, as and when new policy
changes are approved.
3
TIME
MONEY
A TIME OF NEED
BENEFITTING 2,600 TENANTS, LICENSES AND LESSEES
By Grace Thng
OUT
OUT
$60
MILLION
IN REVENUE
FROM THE GOVER M E N T
4
I
n the current recession, SLA has also worked
closely with MOF and the other agencies which
are JTC, HDB and NEA to bring the rental
rebate scheme to fruition. The rental rebates
are targeted to help businesses during this economic downturn by lowering their operating costs
and supporting business cash flow. Thus, rebates
are granted to eligible tenants, licensees and lessees
who rent properties from SLA, JTC, HDB and
NEA for various uses such as commercial, industrial, farming, medical, religious and education.
RENTAL
REBATES
$3,000
$370,000
Typical
Single
Office Unit
Large
State
Property
15%
“The rebates are really timely to help them in running their
business at this daunting global financial crisis.”
CHRISTINA TAN
Director of Hayman Pte Ltd
The rebates will cost the Government
about $60 million in revenue forgone from
SLA-managed properties and will potentially benefit about 2,600 customers.
One of SLA’s tenants who is benefiting
from the rental rebates is Hayman. The
company operates an eating house at Lorong
Bekukong and has generously decided to pass
on the savings to its tenants.
SLA manages a diverse range of State
properties. A typical single office unit may
pay monthly rent of about $3,000. Its
monthly savings will therefore be $450. At
the other end of the spectrum, tenants which
take up State properties of substantial size
will be paying about $370,000, with a
monthly rebate of $55,500. We believe such
savings will provide some relief to the financial burden of our tenants.
Tenants, licensees and lessees who are
eligible have already been informed through
letters from SLA after the Budget Speech.
The rebates for eligible existing tenants have
also been credited to their bank accounts or
offset from their next rental payment.
New eligible tenants will also be grant-
-$450
- $55,000
$2,550
$315,000
ed rebates right from the beginning of their
tenancies. This could encourage businesses
to take up properties from the various agencies which are giving the rebates. The rental
rebate scheme is a move welcomed by many.
In praise of the Government’s quick action
in providing the assistance, Christina said,
“We feel that SLA has done a good job in
returning the rebates so quickly.”
During the 1998 Financial Crisis and
the SARS period in 2002/03, rental rebates
were given to businesses by the Government
to handle the economic downturn. The rebates provided were at 10 percent of the
contracted rental, and were increased and
extended when the economic situation did
not improve.
Phoenix Park, a State property managed by LHN Group.
5
LISTEN
LAW FIRMS BENEFIT FROM
SLA DIALOGUE SESSIONS
DO
By Toh Meow Ling
S
ince 2007, SLA has been holding a string of dialogue
sessions with law firms. SLA’s Registration Services
will continue with this interactive platform to engage
the law firms in our review of rules, policies and work
process. From the feedback and requests, some of the several improvements made to our systems and processes are
highlighted in the chart below.
All these improvements are possible as a result of the
dialogue sessions with HDB and JTC. Lawyer Low Boon
Yean, M/s Rodyk & Davidson LLP, remarked “Wow! JTC
THEN
1.
EASE OF CONTACT
DCE conducting one of the many
regular law dialogue sessions.
cannot lease land without whole lot number. SLA’s dialogue
session with JTC really worked! Well done!” Hoo Shean
Farn, a lawyer from M/s Allen & Gledhill LLP, who deals
with JTC land, praised this initiative as it has facilitated their
clients’ purchase of the property. Both remarked that SLA
should hold more of such sessions, which give them an opportunity to raise issues, give feedback and offer suggestions
on improving our services and procedures. The dialogue
sessions were definitely a tremendous success and SLA will
certainly continue with these beneficial sessions.
NOW
THEN
Law firms frequently request Registration Services, through the
Acting upon this feedback, Registration Services now includes
SLA general hotline, to expedite registration of documents lodged
on the day or the day before so that they can immediately inform
the banks to release the loan. Other than calling the hotline, they
do not know which officer they can contact to expedite the
registration of the documents.
on the ELS lodgment receipt, names and contact numbers of two
registration officers in charge of the day’s lodgement for direct
contact. The service standard for registration of the documents is
also stated on the lodgment receipt, to manage the law firms’ and
their clients’ expectations.
Many law firms who deal with HDB transactions have requested
that Registration Services provide email/fax notification when
caveats and instruments relating to HDB flats are registered.
Banks will only release the loan upon confirmation that the caveats
or instruments have been registered.
ELS can now automatically notify them of the status of their
HDB documents.
Law firms acting for purchasers, or mortgagee financing the
purchase of part of the land sold by SLA, JTC and HDB often
lodge caveats using plans attached to the letters of offer.
These plans are for the purpose of demarcation and cannot
significantly identify the part of the land being sold, resulting in
the caveats being rejected. Law firms feedback that Registration
Services should accept the plans since they are prepared by
SLA, JTC or HDB.
To overcome this, Registration Services embarked on an interagency project with JTC and HDB, and SLA’s other departments
– Land Lease (Public and Private) and Survey Services to
standardised the practice and introduce the requirement for
developers to obtain lot numbers that clearly identify part of the
land purchased. Developers’ lawyers can now request for new lot
numbers using the new form. The improvements have benefited
developers as a quick notification of the banks’ caveats would
ensure the timely release of loans. JTC has also issued a Practice
Circulars on this new initiative on 8 September 2008.
2.
ENHANCEMENT
TO ELECTRONIC
LODGMENT
SYSTEM (ELS)
NOTIFICATION
SYSTEM
3.
IMPROVED PROCESS
OF CAVEAT LODGMENT
FOR JTC, HDB AND
STATE LAND
FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION
WITH
REGISTERED SURVEYORS
By Leong Kai Weng
In the Pro-Enterprise (PE) Ranking Survey 2008,
PE initiatives were discussed with the external
audience as the Registered Surveyors’ emails
Registered Surveyors had given several feed-
party before conducting the session. After the
are usually not read or disseminated.
back to Survey Services of Regulatory Division.
FGD session, the findings were presented to
To better understand the Registered Surveyors’
the Survey Services which shortly proposed an
ess was put in place. Regular tea session were
concerns and needs, Survey Services engaged
action plan to the Senior Management.
held with the Registered Surveyors, to present
an external party to conduct a Focus Group
6
One of the findings is that there is no action
Starting from 6 February 2009 a new proc-
thefeedback, clarify misconceptions and
Discussion (FGD) session with the Registered
taken by Survey Services regarding Registered
introduce new initiatives to address some of the
Surveyors in November 2008.
Surveyors’ feedback. The existing practice was
concern. Survey Services will continue to have
Survey Services’ work processes and
to response via email. However, the reach out
more of such feedback sessions to improve
relationships with Registered Surveyors and
efforts may not have been targeted at the right
their relationship with Registered Surveyors.
LOVE
DEVOTION
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HE WALKS
THE TALK
By Lyria Goh
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He is the familiar face to many SLA
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tenants and customers tendering for State
TIME CONSUMING
TO TIME ABSORBING
EN H A NCEM EN T OF R EGIST R AT ION SERV ICES DATA BA SE SYST EM
A
properties. Siew Hong Leong has been with
SLA since the day it was formed and has
handled more tender projects than he can
remember. Needless to say, he has dealt
with customers from all walks of life. But
the endless experience has not jaded him.
In fact, he has done SLA proud by
By Tan Siew Chin
new database system to facilitate
searches on HDB lease including
Subsidiary Certificate of Title
was launched on 20 January 2009.
The aim of this project is to provide a better
overall service for our customers when they
make a request for a copy of the HDB Lease
through Integrated Land Information Service
(INLIS). This initiative is a collaboration
between Registration Services and Records
Management from the Regulatory Division
and Information Technology Division.
In the past, when a customer requests
for a HDB lease with a property address, payment is collected before the request is process.
Unlike searches for private properties, which
are digitised and readily available for retrieval,
the officer has to use the system maintained
by HDB to retrieve the lease information. If
this information is not available in the system,
the customer will have to conduct another
search personally at the SLA counter, wasting
valuable time. In addition, SLA’s Finance
department has to effect the refund for the
search fee paid earlier.
Under this initiative, a new database
containing 800,000 registered leases is created by Registration Services. This is done by
collating the leases and titles to the strata lots
customers, especially to State properties
winning the 2009 PS21 Star Service Award.
and the respective property addresses extracted from Lot Base System and the HDB
system. Daily updates are also carried out. If
a Subsidiary Certificate of Title has been issued
for the lease, the title reference is included in
the new database.
INLIS has also been enhanced to use
the new database system to perform validation
checks online. Customers can be informed
of the availability of the leases and the payment to be made. On receipt of the request
from INLIS, the officer will supply the customer a copy of the Lease. The need for customers to conduct searches at SLA counter is
therefore, eliminated.
Feedback from the customers have
been positive. Bob Ng from M/S Billy &
ALsree commented “We can receive copies of
leases instantaneously for early completion.”
This is the highest accolade awarded to
the top 0.5% of public officers who excel in
customer service.
“ The interesting aspect
of the job is that I get to
engage with different
customers all the time
with their unique set
of requirements.
Achieving a win-win
situation is therefore
the most desirable and
satisfying reward.”
HONG LEONG
Assistant Manager, Project Services Team of SLA
Hong Leong expressed his gratitude
to his supervisor who had nominated him
and his appreciation to his employer for
“This saves time and money
as we are not required to call
at SLA to conduct searches.”
AMY CHAN
M/S Ong Tan & Nair
sending him to the various service related
training courses.
In Hong Leong, we see many “star”
qualities desired of a public officer,
personable, patience, willingness to listen
and something that endears him to his
SLA will continue with such collaborations to improve customers’ experiences with
our services.
customers – always ready to go the extra
mile to serve.
7
SHARE
CARE
SLA PLAYS HOST TO
HONG KONG SURVEYOR
By Tan Kok Tiong
S
urvey Services played host to
Mr Tse Wai-kin from 16 to
20 February 2009. The Hong
Kong Survey & Mapping Office
had requested for its land surveyor,
Tse Wai-kin to be attached to SLA’s
Survey Services in order to have a
more in-depth understanding of our
cadastral survey system.
In June last year Chief Surveyor, Soh Kheng Peng, played
host to a three-man delegation
comprising Dr Conrad Tang
of the Hong Kong Polytechnic
University, Messrs Simon Kwok
and Law King Wai of the Lands
Department, Survey & Mapping
Office of the Government of Hong
Kong. During the visit, the visitors
had shown keen interest to know
more on the legislation, adminis-
tration and operation of our cadastral survey system.
As a follow up from the
visit, SLA agreed to host Tse for a
two week exchange programme.
Besides the briefing and presentations given during the period,
arrangements were also made for
site visits, demonstration and
hands-on sessions.
At the end of the attachment,
Tse expressed his deep appreciation to SLA for putting up a very
comprehensive programme for
him. He also thanked the various
Survey Services officers for taking
their time to guide him. He was
very impressed with our survey
system and had gained a lot of
knowledge. SLA looks forward to
more of such exchanges.
Tse Wai-kin, seated (left)
“ This trip is rewarding, worthwhile
and enriching.”
MR TSE WAI-KIN
Land Surveyor from Hong Kong
IN
THE LOOP
REGISTERED SURVEYORS RECEIVE UPDATES
ON JOBS WITH INTERNAL QUERIES
By Richard Ho
Previously, whilst Registered
reminder to the Processing
As part of the FY08/09 Pro-Enterprise drive, one of the initiatives
Surveyors are informed that
and Supervising Officers to
identified by Survey Services of SLA under the Customer
their job is under Internal Query
follow-up and proceed to
Responsiveness component is to keep Registered Surveyors
with reasons, feedback by
process for approval. Further
updated every 10 working days interval on the status of the job
Registered Surveyors was that
unresolved cases will require
under Internal Query. A job is logged as an Internal Query when the
there were no further updates.
the Processing Officers to close
submission cannot be approved due to the following reasons:
Hence, there is a need to en-
and create a new Internal Query
sure that they are kept updated
stating the reasons for delay.
on the progress of their job,
This is to trigger the system into
1. Survey Services need to
2. To approve verification of
consult other departments in
land jobs – Certified Plans
which in turn enables them to
automatically prompt Process-
SLA. For example, encroach-
or CP, prior to strata jobs
update their clients.
ing and Supervising Officers
ment from adjoining lot onto
– Strata Certified Plan or
State Land under survey for
CPST, approval.
again in the next 10 working
days and Registered Surveyors
ing Officers and all related
are updated on the progress
3. Survey Services need
departments would receive an
until the job is approved.
the survey request needs
to carry out further
automatic notification through
to be consulted. This is to
internal investigation work
the Job Data Storage system
cated to the Surveyors during
ensure alienation is free
(eg. ground verification)
after 10 working days, by the
Survey Services tea session
of encumbrances.
prior approval.
Processing Officers if the query
held every quarterly starting on
is unresolved. This acts as a
the 6 February 2009.
alienation, where the Commissioner of Lands issuing
8
With this initiative, Registered Surveyors, Supervis-
The initiative was communi-