This is a full version of NEA’s reply issued to the media agency; published in Lianhe Zaobao, 18 Aug 2020.
NEA has put in place various measures to moderate hawker stall rents
We thank Mr Cai Cheng for his letter, “Is NEA still carrying out its mission to support hawkers?”, 7 August (“环境局是否还肩负辅助小贩任务?”).
In the 1970s and early 1980s, subsidised rents were offered to encourage itinerant street hawkers to relocate to purpose-built hawker centres. Today, about 40% of the cooked food stallholders in our existing hawker centres are still on the subsidised rent scheme, where stall rentals are substantially below market rates. The majority of hawkers, including those who join the trade from the 1990s onwards, bid for stalls put up monthly for tender by the Government. This is a fair way to allocate the stall, taking into account the locations of the stall and the hawker centre, amongst all the Singaporeans who aspire to operate a stall. Over the last three years from 2017 to 2019, the average successful bid for cooked food stalls was $1,598 per month. This average stall rental is far lower than the average stall rental at coffeeshops and food courts.
To prevent over-bidding, the National Environment Agency (NEA) has made as much information as possible available to potential bidders, including the 5 Highest Tender Bids Results and list of successful tender bids for the past 12 months. NEA also encourages them to consider business overhead costs before submitting their bids, and highlights a few extraordinarily high past bids which did not lead to positive outcomes.
In addition, NEA has put in place various measures to moderate hawker stall rents. These include disallowing subletting and assignment of hawker stalls, which led to high rents in the past. Furthermore, the removal of reserve rent since March 2012 means that there is no longer a base for tender bids, and bidders can now bid for hawker stalls at rates below the assessed market rent. To date, about 39% of cooked food stalls have been awarded below 85% of the assessed market rent (the previous reserve rent level), with some as low as $1.
We recognise that rents may be a barrier for new hawkers wanting to join the trade. To help sustain the hawker trade, NEA therefore runs an Incubation Stall Programme, where aspiring new hawkers are allocated stalls with lower rents over a period of 15 months, to give them time to establish their clientele and increase their chance of becoming successful hawkers.
On the whole, sustaining a hawker business requires culinary skills, business acumen and passion. Therefore, it may not be tenable to set aside stalls at subsidised rents for persons in financial hardship as an assured means of livelihood. Those who are in financial hardship can seek assistance through the various Government help schemes available.
刘国辉
小贩中心署署长
国家环境局