A hawker stall at Block 4A Eunos Crescent Market and Food Centre was tendered at S$5,555 during the National Environment Agency (NEA)'s latest round of hawker stall biddings.

It was the highest recorded bid for hawker stalls islandwide for June 2023.

The second highest bid was for a stall at Bendemeer Food Centre at S$5,000 per month.

Previous owner left due to high costs

Speaking to 8world, the previous owner of the stall at Eunos Crescent Food Centre said that he chose to close down his business due to the small amount of traffic in the area and high operating costs.

He had been operating the stall for four years. "It's not easy to do business here," he lamented.

He mentioned that on top of rent, goods and services tax (GST) and other expenses, monthly expenses cost around S$9,000.

"I heard that the new stall will sell Nasi Lemak, they have a stall in Tampines," the former owner added. "If the food is good, even if it's expensive, customers will still come."

According to the NEA website, the new owner of stall 01-08 will sell halal cooked food or Indian cuisine.

Marginal profits

The pricey $5,000 bid at Bendemeer Food Centre surprised many vendors.

"S$5,000 is too expensive," one vendor said to 8world.

"This is a market. What are you going to sell? Are you going to sell a plate for S$10, S$20? How are you going to make money?"

Another vendor said that paying $3,000 to $$4,000 in rent is already unsustainable for a family-run business, much less S$5,000.

In order to make marginal profits, vendors need to operate for an entire day to cater to lunch and dinner crowds.

Hiring extra hands like stall assistants pushes up operating costs even more.

A more in-depth guide on hawker stall bidding

In order to own a hawker stall in Singapore, one must tender for a stall under NEA's monthly tender exercise, which is usually held from the 13th to the 26th of each month.

Information on available stalls will be published on NEA's website, as well as in government-run newspapers such as The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao.

Vacant stalls are put up for tender and are awarded to the highest bidders, although NEA reserves the right to decline the highest bid or any offer at all.

Tenderers may refer to NEA's website for the list of successful bids of stalls for the past year to serve as reference for one's own bid.

Successful bidders will then receive a letter of offer from NEA, followed by a tenancy agreement. After signing the tenancy agreement, new tenants are given up to three months to commence operations.

Government working on "reasonable rentals"

On Mar. 2, 2023, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Amy Khor said that the government is working to ensure "reasonable rentals" at Singapore's hawker centres.

She said that stallholders who go through NEA's monthly tender exercises can bid for a stall at a monthly rental as low as S$1, while others may submit higher bids to secure stalls at popular locations.

Khor added that this is "a transparent and fair system" with no minimum bid.

She also highlighted that median rental across our non-subsidised cooked food stalls has remained constant at about S$1,250 since four years ago, and are "generally lower than most other comparable food establishments in their vicinity".

Why is it so expensive?

Factors such as location, business level and patron demographics affect bidding prices and in turn, how hawkers price their food.

Speaking to Shin Min Daily News, a man named Xu, chairman of the Market Association for Block 4A Eunos Crescent Market and Food Centre, pointed out that high demand for a certain type of food may result in a higher bidding price.

He believes that the S$5,555 bidding price is the highest bidding price in the history of the hawker center.

The market is also considered a 'neighbourhood' hawker center, which made the high bid even more shocking.

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