Hawkers like Mr Yap who run cooked food stalls will receive S$1,200 (US$930) in rental support while market stallholders will get S$600, the government announced on Wednesday. This will be disbursed over six months from September this year to February 2027.
The support is for stallholders in hawker centres and markets managed by the government or government-appointed operators, including socially conscious enterprise hawker centres run by private operators appointed by the National Environment Agency (NEA) – such as Woodleigh Village Hawker Centre.
The rental relief is expected to benefit 15,200 stalls, comprising 6,900 cooked food stalls and 8,300 market stalls. Stallholders will be informed separately about the eligibility criteria, said Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling.
The support is meant to help sustain Singapore’s hawker culture and to show that the government is a “responsible manager” of hawker centres and markets, she said, adding that the higher support for cooked food stalls reflects the wider range of cost pressures they face, such as energy costs for food preparation.
“BETTER THAN NOTHING”
Like Mr Yap, several other hawkers CNA spoke to have had to manage higher overheads as a result of the Middle East crisis.
For Ms Ita, who sells Indian food at Maxwell Food Centre, which is managed and maintained by NEA, the costs of tomatoes and plastic containers are increasing her expenses. Suppliers have asked her to order more of the containers to get a good delivery price, she said.
She pays about S$2,620 per month for rent, which includes around S$600 for table cleaning fees.
The upcoming rental support of S$1,200 over six months would help, but not that much, said Ms Ita, who only wanted to be known by her first name.
“It’s like a yes but a no … The fact that remains is that it’s still not helping much,” she said.
Ms Li Yan, a second-generation hawker who runs local cuisine stall Straits Authentic at the same hawker centre, echoed this sentiment.
“We are not first-generation, so our market rate is a bit higher than that. So S$200 (a month) is not much. But still, better than nothing, right?” she said.
Her monthly rental cost goes up to about S$2,850, inclusive of the table cleaning fees and other miscellaneous expenses.
Due to the ongoing crisis, she has had to fork out an extra S$2 to S$3 in delivery charges for noodles every day.
“(The suppliers) said because of gas or the fuel going back, they have to charge … It depends on the supplier, but you can’t anyhow change the supplier because of the taste (of the food). You can’t anyhow change the taste,” said Ms Yan.