Imagine: you want to know whether a plot of land or a building is state or privately-owned in order to tip-off a case of mosquitoesbreeding, overgrown or fallen trees, illegal parking, noise pollution, or even rubbish dumping. Imagine: you are interested to rent space and apply for permit to hold a corporate event, organize a family carnival, or simply to start a business. Imagine: you are interested to buy a strip of land adjoining to your property. Who do you call?

From November 22, 2006, LandQuery, the map-based information service on land ownership has been made available free to the public. LandQuery can provide information on:

a. Whether the land is State or privately owned;

b. Contact details of the public agency responsible for a particular State land or its managing agent; and

c. Land boundaries and lot numbers.



The LandQuery is a strategic partnership amongst the public sector, to capture a comprehensive database of public land ownership information. Enforcement agencies will find it useful to determine ownership for operational field work, such as maintenance, solving cases, or simply conducting routine checks. The general public will also be able to contact the right public agency for feedback on a particular State land.

This is just one of the many ways that the new online information service, known as LandQuery, can help public sector officers respond faster to public feedback on land matters, said Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs, at a public launch ceremony of the new services at the Singapore Land Authority.

Also new is the StreetMap@Singapore that offers a simple and quick way to search for location information. Users are able to search using 5 different search keys and are able to download the maps for personal and non-commercial use.

These two services are enhancements to the current services that SLA is providing through the Integrated Land Information Service (INLIS) (www.inlis.gov.sg) portal.

Associate Professor Ho said that LandQuery hosts information on State land managed or used by about 50 different government agencies.

Hitherto, SLA receives enquiries from members of the public on land ownership generally for the following purposes:
1) Interest in renting a piece of land or property;
2) Interest in buying remnant land adjoining to their property; and
3) Land maintenance issues like mosquito breeding, overgrown trees, illegal parking and rubbish dumping.

Between April to August this year, SLA received on average per month, about 50 enquiries pertaining to land/property maintenance issue, and another 35 enquiries on rental of state land and properties.

StreetMap@Singapore is a basic online street directory service that provides the public with basic information like buildings and road names. Users can do a simple search using the following parameters: road name, address, postal code, building or development name and the nearest MRT or LRT station.

Maps from StreetMap@Singapore can be downloaded for free for personal and non-commercial uses. For example, users can utilize these maps for their own personal invitation cards.

Associate Professor Ho also updated the progress and enhancements of INLIS since its inception in 1998. INLIS is as one of the more successful government e-commerce sites; there are now 28 services from the initial 6, a 4-fold increase in services. This augurs good progress of SLA within the last 5 years in its move toward becoming the leading land and property information provider. Five years on, the number of electronic transactions conducted via INLIS has increased significantly in tandem with the growth of the Internet. The annual INLIS transactions grew from about 3,900 in 1998 to 132,000 in 2005. It is expected to achieve 30% increase this year. The yearly INLIS transacted value increased correspondingly from $48,000 in its first year to close to $2.35 million in 2005.

The other services added in INLIS in 2006 are:-
1. Image of HDB Leases
2. Image of HDB Instruments
3. Image to Private Property Instruments
4. Image of Index to Caveat Book
5. Image of Index to Land Book
6. Image of Private Property Deeds.
7. Property Title Information - Estate and Land Description
8. Property Title Information - Encumbrances Information
9. Land Information - Lot History
10. Historical Information
11. Caveat Index Information
12. SiReNT GPS data

Previously, customers had to make their way down to the SLA counter personally to purchase the images of the scanned documents, which was a time-consuming and bothersome process. By making these documents available for sale on the INLIS website, customers can purchase them in the comfort of their own homes or offices, thereby saving them much time and trouble.

Real estate agents, lawyers, homebuyers, surveyors, engineers, architects and other professionals and the larger public have benefited from the all the available services on INLIS.

SLA Head of Land Information Centre, Mr Lim Ming Khai said: "SLA hopes that with the provision of all these services including LandQuery and StreetMap@Singapore, public service efficiency and productivity will be enhanced. To the members of the public, it saves them fuss and time; all part of our commitment to enhancing quality public service."

The vision for INLIS is for it to become the gateway to land information services across various agencies to utilise land information, and to continually improve land data's usefulness and accessibility. INLIS aims to make it easier for residents and businesses to find and use quality land information about Singapore.

The 2 services of LandQuery and StreetMap@Singapore can be easily accessed through
http://www.inlis.gov.sg.