SINGAPORE: After closing a Western food stall at a coffee shop last year, Mr Ng set his sights on a new goal – opening a hawker stall with his wife to sell artisanal and traditional coffee.
Rather than bid for a tender through the National Environment Agency (NEA), the 31-year-old visited about 10 hawker centres to look for a stall to sublet.
“The only reason why I'll choose to sublet is because … good places will never be given up,” said Mr Ng, who did not want his full name published.
Although Singapore prohibits the subletting of hawker stalls, the practice has persisted. Experts say it undermines the intent of hawker centres, which are meant to offer affordable food and support small-scale entrepreneurship.
“If the government were to allow subletting, it would attract a more commercially oriented type of vendor, the same sort of people who are already in the food courts and the kopitiams,” said National University of Singapore (NUS) economist Ivan Png.
Such vendors would “price more commercially” and food costs would go up, he added.
Experts also point to the principle at stake – that subsidised hawker stalls should not be used for private gain.
But most of the 20 hawkers CNA spoke to said it is an “open secret” that under-the-table subletting arrangements are common across hawker centres.
The ban on subletting was introduced in 2012. Stallholders were given a three-year grace period to adjust, and current rules require successful tenderers or their registered joint operators to personally run the stall for at least four hours daily.
Mr Ng said he would prefer to go through NEA's official tender process if better locations were available.
“At the end of the day … that stall is not yours. So anytime, if the real owner wants to take back right, there’s nothing you can do,” he said about sublet stalls.
But the stalls available for tender are often not ideal, Mr Ng said. “You know every single shop will ‘toh’ one, what's the point?” he said, using the Hokkien term for “fail”.
He has been quoted S$8,000 (US$6,300) to sublet a popular stall in Chinatown, and as low as S$2,000 for stalls in less crowded areas.
The median rent for non-subsidised hawker stalls has remained at around S$1,250 monthly between 2015 and 2023, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said earlier this year.
Those on the subsidised rental scheme typically pay S$192, S$320 or S$384 per month, Ms Fu said in a parliamentary response in 2023. But as older hawkers retired, the proportion of subsidised stallholders fell from 40 per cent in 2013 to 30 per cent over the same period.
Mr Melvin Chew, who runs Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck and Kway Chap at Chinatown Complex, said most prime-location stalls are still held by older hawkers.
“You can hardly tender for such good location unless the existing hawkers are willing to give up or return to NEA,” said the 47-year-old. “So most people will hunt for such stalls.”
The limited number of stalls available for tender means that bidding can be competitive.
Mr Tan, a hawker who sublet a stall to sell Chinese desserts, said bids for government-run hawker stalls were “way too high” for him. People often bid “crazy” prices, the 39-year-old added.
In one 2024 case, a stall at Marine Parade Central drew a record bid of over S$10,000. Dr Koh Poh Koon, the senior minister of state for the environment ministry then, said that such bids were outliers and “not the norm”.
NEA holds tender exercises for vacant stalls on its website, typically from the 13th to the 26th of every month.
The five highest bids are published about one week after the tender closes, and the final results are released five to seven weeks later.
There are no minimum bid prices and stalls are awarded to the highest qualifying bid.
Successful bid prices are also published on NEA’s website as a reference to guide future tenderers.
Collapse Expand
In November last year, NEA revised its rental renewal policy to reduce inflated bids. Previously, tenderers could put in high bids to secure the stall, as their tendered rent would be adjusted downwards to the assessed market rate after three years.
Now, rental for the second tenancy term is adjusted downwards by 50 per cent of the difference between the tendered and assessed market rates.
But Mr Tan said many available stalls were designated for Halal or Indian food, which he did not want to sell. Of 34 stalls in the latest tender in July, 26 stalls were designated as such.
Mr Tan, who sublets a stall at a hawker centre in the west, pays about S$4,100 for rent, while the original stallholder pays about S$2,600.
“I have no choice, because these people don't let go,” he said. “How I get to bid, I can't bid at all, right?”
Some see subletting as more affordable than renting from privately run coffee shops.
One hawker who wanted to be known only as Tim said he pays a “reasonable” S$3,000 a month to sublet a hawker stall in Bukit Merah. The 34-year-old, who runs a noodles stall, said he sees subletting as a “win-win” solution.
“I pay less rent and my business is good. At the same time, I managed to help the stall owner so that they don’t have to work already.”
He pointed out that many veteran hawkers have been working for decades and still need income in their retirement.
“You are killing people’s careers and lives if you don’t let them sublet,” he said. “If they return (the stall) to NEA, what do they do? They still have things to pay for in life.”
Anecdotally, most stallholders who rent out their stalls are older hawkers seeking passive income.
While most sublet their stall for slightly higher than what they pay for rent, some “spoil market” by charging “very high prices”, said Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck’s Mr Chew, who also founded the Facebook group Hawkers United - Dabao 2020.
Under the Hawker’s Succession Scheme, veteran hawkers planning to retire can pass down their skills, recipes and stalls to aspiring hawkers. Those who return their stall to NEA and exit the trade receive a one-off ex gratia payment of S$23,000.
But many see the payout as modest compared to what they can earn by renting out the stall or arranging a private takeover. In such takeovers, buyers pay an agreed fee directly to the original stallholder before applying for a transfer of ownership.
A hawker in his early 60s told CNA he put his drinks stall up for takeover at around S$80,000. After 40 years in the trade, he hopes to retire due to poor health.
With help from a property agent, he has received a few enquiries so far.
Former hawker Khoo Keat Hwee, who used to run Mentai-Ya Japanese Cuisine, said it is common for those seeking stalls to visit hawker centres in person. He recalled being approached several times a year by property agents.
Mr Khoo, 38, who is now an F&B consultant, said the “most ridiculous” quote he heard was S$8,500 a month to rent a stall at a hawker centre in Bedok.
CNA also found listings for hawker stalls on platforms such as Carousell and Facebook, with monthly rents ranging from S$2,900 for a stall in Jurong West to S$4,000 for one near Rochor. One Toa Payoh stall was listed for takeover at a staggering S$168,888.
In the past year, there were at least 10 such posts in a Facebook group, seven listings on Carousell and one on property platform 99.co.
Carousell said sellers are responsible for ensuring listings comply with local laws, and it is “not privy to and not in a position to enforce” third-party agreements. Facebook and 99.co did not respond to queries.
A screenshot of posts uploaded by users seeking stalls to sublet in a Facebook group.
A screenshot of a Carousell listing advertising a hawker stall for rent.
Some argue that subletting helps preserve variety in hawker centres. Food critic KF Seetoh said it can “add to the colour of the culture”.
“It's a win-win for both original hawkers and the new player, and customers won't really care much as long as food is affordable and good,” he said.
But others warn of a knock-on effect on prices. Mr Khoo said sublet stalls tend to charge more. For example, a plate of chicken rice may be priced at S$5 to S$6 compared with the national average of S$3.80 in 2023.
“The whole ecosystem will be affected,” he said. “At the end of the day, food prices will not be as cheap or as affordable as they're supposed to be.”
Mr Ng, the hawker looking for a stall to sublet, acknowledged that if he were to pay a much higher rent, he would need to price his coffee higher.
“I’ll need to cut down my cost to maybe S$3 a cup. That's also very expensive for iced coffee,” he said.
Dr Tan Ern Ser, adjunct principal research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, pointed out that subletting was banned to curb rental hikes, which could ultimately drive up food prices.
Allowing subletting would run counter to the intent behind hawker centres, which is to encourage entrepreneurship and preserve hawker culture, he added.
In March, Dr Koh said in a Facebook post that detecting subletting “isn’t always straightforward”.
“Subletting is done under the table, and NEA has to conduct thorough investigations to uncover and substantiate such cases,” he said. Requiring stallholders to physically operate their stalls remains the “most practical and fair way” of preventing subletting.
In 2024, NEA identified and warned more than 230 stalls that were not personally operated by registered stallholders. More than 100 terminated their tenancy. Others resumed personal operations or provided valid reasons for their absence, such as medical conditions, Dr Koh said.
In response to CNA’s queries, NEA said it conducts thorough investigations to uncover and substantiate subletting cases. This includes gathering photo evidence, conducting interviews and performing repeated checks before action is taken.
Members of the public who suspect a hawker stall is subletting can inform NEA, which will look into cases that have reasonable grounds for investigation, the agency said.
Still, hawkers told CNA that some stallholders register sublessees as workers to evade detection.
An ayam penyet hawker in his 40s told CNA he is looking to rent out one of the two stalls he has for about S$4,000 a month, despite paying only S$2,000 for it.
To avoid detection, he plans to register the sublessees as his workers, keeping the stall under his name. “The only difference is they get the income,” he said.
When asked how he would respond to government inspectors, he replied: “The ruling is you have to be at the stall. We are at the stall.”
Tim, the hawker subletting in Bukit Merah, said the original stallholder is present almost daily and remains on-site when inspectors visit. Such inspections are conducted regularly and at random times.
Veteran hawker Niven Leong of Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice said many enter the trade as entrepreneurs, not traditional hawkers.
“I am a businessman, I'm not a hawker,” said the 65-year-old of such hawkers. “The mentality is different.”
In March, a hawker’s Facebook complaint that his pregnant wife was “forced” to man their stall in Yishun sparked renewed scrutiny of the rules.
Experts say enforcement is no simple task. NEA oversees over 6,000 cooked food stalls across 123 markets and hawker centres.
Author and researcher Ryan Kueh, who wrote From Streets to Stalls, said enforcement must be balanced with empathy for older hawkers who have legitimate reasons for not being able to operate their stalls personally.
“I do think NEA does its best to look at this on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “Obviously, there will always be individuals who try and test the system, and I do think those individuals should be clamped down on hard.”
Assistant Professor of Urban Studies Aidan Wong from the Singapore Management University likened the situation to “grasping sand”.
“Too loose, and you get the problems of this idea that widespread subletting is occurring. Hold it too tightly, and you disincentivise any form of public hawkering,” he said.
Adjunct Associate Professor Terence Ho from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS added that subletting could make it more difficult for genuine hawkers to obtain a stall.
Unlike coffee shops, hawker stalls are intended to provide Singaporeans with the opportunity to run a small food business, he said.
“There is an element of wanting to preserve Singapore’s distinctive hawker heritage, rather than have big chains with hired workers take over the running of hawker stalls,” he added.
Younger hawkers are already feeling its effects.
“We can’t go in, the barrier is getting higher,” said Mr Tan, the Chinese desserts hawker. Big players with deeper pockets will be able to bid higher prices and crowd out new entrants, he added.
Mr Ng, the hawker searching for a stall to sublet for his artisanal coffee business, still hopes to run his own stall one day. While he acknowledges that the current system makes it difficult for younger hawkers to enter the trade, he said he understands why some choose to sublet their stalls for passive income.
“Humans are humans. Nobody will say no to money,” he said, adding that a harsh clampdown on subletting could have unintended consequences.
“It might actually make a lot of people lose their rice bowl.”
Continue reading...
Rather than bid for a tender through the National Environment Agency (NEA), the 31-year-old visited about 10 hawker centres to look for a stall to sublet.
“The only reason why I'll choose to sublet is because … good places will never be given up,” said Mr Ng, who did not want his full name published.
Although Singapore prohibits the subletting of hawker stalls, the practice has persisted. Experts say it undermines the intent of hawker centres, which are meant to offer affordable food and support small-scale entrepreneurship.
“If the government were to allow subletting, it would attract a more commercially oriented type of vendor, the same sort of people who are already in the food courts and the kopitiams,” said National University of Singapore (NUS) economist Ivan Png.
Such vendors would “price more commercially” and food costs would go up, he added.
Experts also point to the principle at stake – that subsidised hawker stalls should not be used for private gain.
But most of the 20 hawkers CNA spoke to said it is an “open secret” that under-the-table subletting arrangements are common across hawker centres.
The ban on subletting was introduced in 2012. Stallholders were given a three-year grace period to adjust, and current rules require successful tenderers or their registered joint operators to personally run the stall for at least four hours daily.
BETTER LOCATION, HIGHER FOOTFALL
Mr Ng said he would prefer to go through NEA's official tender process if better locations were available.
“At the end of the day … that stall is not yours. So anytime, if the real owner wants to take back right, there’s nothing you can do,” he said about sublet stalls.
But the stalls available for tender are often not ideal, Mr Ng said. “You know every single shop will ‘toh’ one, what's the point?” he said, using the Hokkien term for “fail”.
He has been quoted S$8,000 (US$6,300) to sublet a popular stall in Chinatown, and as low as S$2,000 for stalls in less crowded areas.
The median rent for non-subsidised hawker stalls has remained at around S$1,250 monthly between 2015 and 2023, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said earlier this year.
Those on the subsidised rental scheme typically pay S$192, S$320 or S$384 per month, Ms Fu said in a parliamentary response in 2023. But as older hawkers retired, the proportion of subsidised stallholders fell from 40 per cent in 2013 to 30 per cent over the same period.
Mr Melvin Chew, who runs Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck and Kway Chap at Chinatown Complex, said most prime-location stalls are still held by older hawkers.
“You can hardly tender for such good location unless the existing hawkers are willing to give up or return to NEA,” said the 47-year-old. “So most people will hunt for such stalls.”
COMPETITIVE BIDS
The limited number of stalls available for tender means that bidding can be competitive.
Mr Tan, a hawker who sublet a stall to sell Chinese desserts, said bids for government-run hawker stalls were “way too high” for him. People often bid “crazy” prices, the 39-year-old added.
In one 2024 case, a stall at Marine Parade Central drew a record bid of over S$10,000. Dr Koh Poh Koon, the senior minister of state for the environment ministry then, said that such bids were outliers and “not the norm”.
How to bid for a hawker stall through NEA
NEA holds tender exercises for vacant stalls on its website, typically from the 13th to the 26th of every month.
The five highest bids are published about one week after the tender closes, and the final results are released five to seven weeks later.
There are no minimum bid prices and stalls are awarded to the highest qualifying bid.
Successful bid prices are also published on NEA’s website as a reference to guide future tenderers.
Collapse Expand
In November last year, NEA revised its rental renewal policy to reduce inflated bids. Previously, tenderers could put in high bids to secure the stall, as their tendered rent would be adjusted downwards to the assessed market rate after three years.
Now, rental for the second tenancy term is adjusted downwards by 50 per cent of the difference between the tendered and assessed market rates.
But Mr Tan said many available stalls were designated for Halal or Indian food, which he did not want to sell. Of 34 stalls in the latest tender in July, 26 stalls were designated as such.
Mr Tan, who sublets a stall at a hawker centre in the west, pays about S$4,100 for rent, while the original stallholder pays about S$2,600.
“I have no choice, because these people don't let go,” he said. “How I get to bid, I can't bid at all, right?”
Some see subletting as more affordable than renting from privately run coffee shops.
One hawker who wanted to be known only as Tim said he pays a “reasonable” S$3,000 a month to sublet a hawker stall in Bukit Merah. The 34-year-old, who runs a noodles stall, said he sees subletting as a “win-win” solution.
“I pay less rent and my business is good. At the same time, I managed to help the stall owner so that they don’t have to work already.”
He pointed out that many veteran hawkers have been working for decades and still need income in their retirement.
“You are killing people’s careers and lives if you don’t let them sublet,” he said. “If they return (the stall) to NEA, what do they do? They still have things to pay for in life.”
Related:
Anecdotally, most stallholders who rent out their stalls are older hawkers seeking passive income.
While most sublet their stall for slightly higher than what they pay for rent, some “spoil market” by charging “very high prices”, said Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck’s Mr Chew, who also founded the Facebook group Hawkers United - Dabao 2020.
Under the Hawker’s Succession Scheme, veteran hawkers planning to retire can pass down their skills, recipes and stalls to aspiring hawkers. Those who return their stall to NEA and exit the trade receive a one-off ex gratia payment of S$23,000.
But many see the payout as modest compared to what they can earn by renting out the stall or arranging a private takeover. In such takeovers, buyers pay an agreed fee directly to the original stallholder before applying for a transfer of ownership.
A hawker in his early 60s told CNA he put his drinks stall up for takeover at around S$80,000. After 40 years in the trade, he hopes to retire due to poor health.
With help from a property agent, he has received a few enquiries so far.
FINDINGS STALLS TO SUBLET
Former hawker Khoo Keat Hwee, who used to run Mentai-Ya Japanese Cuisine, said it is common for those seeking stalls to visit hawker centres in person. He recalled being approached several times a year by property agents.
Mr Khoo, 38, who is now an F&B consultant, said the “most ridiculous” quote he heard was S$8,500 a month to rent a stall at a hawker centre in Bedok.
CNA also found listings for hawker stalls on platforms such as Carousell and Facebook, with monthly rents ranging from S$2,900 for a stall in Jurong West to S$4,000 for one near Rochor. One Toa Payoh stall was listed for takeover at a staggering S$168,888.
In the past year, there were at least 10 such posts in a Facebook group, seven listings on Carousell and one on property platform 99.co.
Carousell said sellers are responsible for ensuring listings comply with local laws, and it is “not privy to and not in a position to enforce” third-party agreements. Facebook and 99.co did not respond to queries.
A screenshot of posts uploaded by users seeking stalls to sublet in a Facebook group.
A screenshot of a Carousell listing advertising a hawker stall for rent.
KNOCK-ON EFFECT ON PRICES
Some argue that subletting helps preserve variety in hawker centres. Food critic KF Seetoh said it can “add to the colour of the culture”.
“It's a win-win for both original hawkers and the new player, and customers won't really care much as long as food is affordable and good,” he said.
But others warn of a knock-on effect on prices. Mr Khoo said sublet stalls tend to charge more. For example, a plate of chicken rice may be priced at S$5 to S$6 compared with the national average of S$3.80 in 2023.
“The whole ecosystem will be affected,” he said. “At the end of the day, food prices will not be as cheap or as affordable as they're supposed to be.”
Mr Ng, the hawker looking for a stall to sublet, acknowledged that if he were to pay a much higher rent, he would need to price his coffee higher.
“I’ll need to cut down my cost to maybe S$3 a cup. That's also very expensive for iced coffee,” he said.
Dr Tan Ern Ser, adjunct principal research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, pointed out that subletting was banned to curb rental hikes, which could ultimately drive up food prices.
Allowing subletting would run counter to the intent behind hawker centres, which is to encourage entrepreneurship and preserve hawker culture, he added.
LOOPHOLES AND ENFORCEMENT
In March, Dr Koh said in a Facebook post that detecting subletting “isn’t always straightforward”.
“Subletting is done under the table, and NEA has to conduct thorough investigations to uncover and substantiate such cases,” he said. Requiring stallholders to physically operate their stalls remains the “most practical and fair way” of preventing subletting.
In 2024, NEA identified and warned more than 230 stalls that were not personally operated by registered stallholders. More than 100 terminated their tenancy. Others resumed personal operations or provided valid reasons for their absence, such as medical conditions, Dr Koh said.
In response to CNA’s queries, NEA said it conducts thorough investigations to uncover and substantiate subletting cases. This includes gathering photo evidence, conducting interviews and performing repeated checks before action is taken.
Members of the public who suspect a hawker stall is subletting can inform NEA, which will look into cases that have reasonable grounds for investigation, the agency said.
Still, hawkers told CNA that some stallholders register sublessees as workers to evade detection.
An ayam penyet hawker in his 40s told CNA he is looking to rent out one of the two stalls he has for about S$4,000 a month, despite paying only S$2,000 for it.
To avoid detection, he plans to register the sublessees as his workers, keeping the stall under his name. “The only difference is they get the income,” he said.
When asked how he would respond to government inspectors, he replied: “The ruling is you have to be at the stall. We are at the stall.”
Tim, the hawker subletting in Bukit Merah, said the original stallholder is present almost daily and remains on-site when inspectors visit. Such inspections are conducted regularly and at random times.
Veteran hawker Niven Leong of Sin Kee Famous Chicken Rice said many enter the trade as entrepreneurs, not traditional hawkers.
“I am a businessman, I'm not a hawker,” said the 65-year-old of such hawkers. “The mentality is different.”
Related:
"GRASPING SAND"
In March, a hawker’s Facebook complaint that his pregnant wife was “forced” to man their stall in Yishun sparked renewed scrutiny of the rules.
Experts say enforcement is no simple task. NEA oversees over 6,000 cooked food stalls across 123 markets and hawker centres.
Author and researcher Ryan Kueh, who wrote From Streets to Stalls, said enforcement must be balanced with empathy for older hawkers who have legitimate reasons for not being able to operate their stalls personally.
“I do think NEA does its best to look at this on a case-by-case basis,” he said. “Obviously, there will always be individuals who try and test the system, and I do think those individuals should be clamped down on hard.”
Assistant Professor of Urban Studies Aidan Wong from the Singapore Management University likened the situation to “grasping sand”.
“Too loose, and you get the problems of this idea that widespread subletting is occurring. Hold it too tightly, and you disincentivise any form of public hawkering,” he said.
Adjunct Associate Professor Terence Ho from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at NUS added that subletting could make it more difficult for genuine hawkers to obtain a stall.
Unlike coffee shops, hawker stalls are intended to provide Singaporeans with the opportunity to run a small food business, he said.
“There is an element of wanting to preserve Singapore’s distinctive hawker heritage, rather than have big chains with hired workers take over the running of hawker stalls,” he added.
Younger hawkers are already feeling its effects.
“We can’t go in, the barrier is getting higher,” said Mr Tan, the Chinese desserts hawker. Big players with deeper pockets will be able to bid higher prices and crowd out new entrants, he added.
Mr Ng, the hawker searching for a stall to sublet for his artisanal coffee business, still hopes to run his own stall one day. While he acknowledges that the current system makes it difficult for younger hawkers to enter the trade, he said he understands why some choose to sublet their stalls for passive income.
“Humans are humans. Nobody will say no to money,” he said, adding that a harsh clampdown on subletting could have unintended consequences.
“It might actually make a lot of people lose their rice bowl.”
Continue reading...