Written Reply to Parliamentary Question on Median Rent for Hawker Stalls

Question:

Ms Hazel Poa: To ask the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment what is the difference between the median monthly rent for hawker stalls in 2023 and the median monthly rent for hawker stalls tendered out (i) up to three years ago (ii) between three to six years ago and (iii) more than nine years ago, with a breakdown by those managed by NEA and those at the Socially-conscious Enterprise Hawker Centres.

Answer:

1 The National Environment Agency (NEA) puts vacant cooked food stalls at its hawker centres up for tender every month to ensure that stalls are allocated in a fair and transparent manner. The median rent for successful tenders was around $1,800 in 2023. Under NEA’s policy, the rental of successfully tendered stalls are adjusted towards the Assessed Market Rent (AMR) at the end of their initial 3-year tenancy term. As a result, the median monthly rent for all non-subsidised cooked food stalls in hawker centres managed by NEA has remained relatively stable at around $1,250 between 2015 and 2023.

2 At Socially-conscious Enterprise Hawker Centres (SEHCs), stall rentals are proposed upfront by SEHC operators in their tender bids to NEA. The operators are not allowed to vary hawkers’ rent over their tenancy term, or subject the stall rentals to bidding. As of 2023, there were 12 SEHCs in operation, and the median stall rent is $1,700.

3 There are many factors, such as location, stall sizes, food types and competition from other F&B outlets in the vicinity,  that attribute to the varying rentals.