According to Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor on Tuesday (6 July), 58% of 341 hawker stall holders whose tenancies were up for renewal between April and June had their rentals revised down towards the market rate.
This decrease ranged from $30 to over $2,500 per month.
She had been responding to a question in Parliament from Mr Melvin Yong about financial aid for hawkers who had been affected by a COVID-19 cluster, as well as how the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment (MSE) planned to help bring back crowds to markets and hawker centres that had recovered from clusters.
She also observed that increases in rent for hawker stalls were halted between April 2020 and March 2021.
Out of all those whose tenancies were up for renewal, 37% continued to pay the same amount of rental costs. The remaining 5% had their rent increased by $10 to $300.
This 5% of hawkers who dealt with an increase had a median rental of $850.
Dr Khor said that among those, the stalls that had their rental increased by $300 are still paying at or below the market valuation.
Dr Khor also added that the median rental of non-subsidised cooked food stalls across all hawker centres is $1,250 per month, which is “significantly lower” than stalls that are located at commercial coffee shops and food courts.
She also said that there is no “minimum rental”.
Food blogger KF Seetoh had shared in a viral Facebook post that some hawkers’ rents had been increased by almost 40%.
He shared a photo of a notice that had been issued by the National Environment Agency (NEA) to a hawker, articulating the increase in rent along with the renewal of the tenancy agreement.
The food blogger had criticised this increase and said that it came at a “horrible timing”, arguing that this particular hawker “had been languishing in sales this whole year”.
In response, the NEA published a post on Facebook to address the matter, saying that rental increases during tenancy renewals have not gone beyond $300 in recent years.
NEA asserted that there had been rental decreases instead, and said that it is “misleading to look at percentage increases alone as a $300 increase from a low rental will appear as a large percentage increase”.
Dr Khor acknowledged that during this “challenging period”, any rental increase would be “sensitive”.
She added that hawkers in financial difficulty due to the increase can consult the NEA for assistance, which will undertake “a careful review on a case-by-case basis”.
The Government is also considering providing rental waivers for hawkers who have been negatively impacted by closures resulting from COVID-19 clusters.
She added that hawkers from the Bukit Merah View Market and Food Centre are already covered under rental waivers until mid-July.
In addition, hawkers can seek assistance from financial schemes such as the Quarantine Order Allowance Scheme or the COVID-19 Recovery Grant if they have been served quarantine orders.
Featured Image: Hit1912 / Shutterstock.com (Image is for illustration purpose only)
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