THE Housing Board has added yet another feather in its cyberspace cap - an e-portal called MyHDBPage.

Details of your flat's mortgage status, renovation permit and even parking fines are now just a click away.

Already, about 40,600 people have visited the portal, which was introduced in December and officially launched yesterday.

Using the portal, an owner can also find out which HDB officer to contact for queries about his property, as well as how an en bloc redevelopment programme in his estate is progressing.

He will need his identity card number and an HDB-issued password or his SingPass to access the portal, which adds to HDB's range of electronic services like SMS alerts on available flats.

The board last week also revamped its way of selling flats to encourage people to make online applications. It replaced its walk-in booking system with one which required online balloting before leftover flats were put up for walk-in bookings.

With the new system, those who ballot online do not need to queue.

In a queueing frenzy last month at the HDB Hub, hundreds of people queued at a walk-in selection exercise - some without knowing clearly what sort of flats they were queueing for.

The majority eventually decided not to book any flat.

Speaking to reporters at the board's annual Quality Service Day yesterday, HDB chief executive Tay Kim Poh said: 'It's a lot of wasted effort...people queueing up for things that they are not aware of and our sales people having to attend to 4,000 to 5,000 applicants, when so far only about 300 have bought the flats.'

Mr Tay was quizzed about the recent changes that make it easier for flat owners to sublet their whole units.

Before the change was announced on Saturday, owners could rent out their flats only after five years, or 10 years if they had not paid off their HDB home loans.

With the change, owners can rent out their units after three years, or five years if they had bought the flats with a subsidy or government grant.

Mr Tay dismissed the notion that people might buy flats solely for investment.

'They buy it because they need a place to stay, they want to raise a family and things like that,' he said.

2 state properties up for tender as offices

THE former premises of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore as well as that of River Valley Primary School are now up for tender as office space.

The two state properties are part of a slate of six picked for office use last month, as the Government moves to cater to the needs of financial institutions and other businesses.

The former CAAS office in Upper Changi Road North comprises a two-storey building with 1,027 sq m of built-up space. It can be leased for an initial term of three years, renewable up to 2012.

The former premises of River Valley Primary in River Valley Road have three blocks, a canteen and a sub-station, with 4,390 sq m of built-up space. It can be leased for an initial term of three years, renewable up to 2013. The tenders for both premises will close on March 30.

The Singapore Land Authority, which is conducting the tender, estimated that it would be letting out a total of 43,000 sq m of office space in the first half of this year. It said yesterday that it would assess the response to these two properties before deciding if more such space should be released in the latter half of the year.