Food centres like the recently renovated Bedok Market Place are popular with residents. (Photo: Cheryl Marie Tay)
Open-air food centres are uniquely Singaporean, but are high costs and low morale among young hawkers threatening the hawker trade? We investigate.
By Romesh Navaratnarajah
Hawker centres are an integral part of Singaporean culture. Located across the island, they offer convenience, good food at affordable prices, and serve as important places for community bonding.
There are more than 100 hawker centres in Singapore, most of which are run by the National Environment Agency (NEA). Despite their popularity among locals and tourists, many hawkers, especially the younger generation, find themselves struggling to make ends meet due to rising business costs.
Those who spoke to PropertyGuru said higher rent is just one problem, as they now also pay more for ingredients, manpower and utilities.
“It is one big headache,” said hawker Samuel Gan. The 23-year-old helps run a family business called Daddy’s Boneless Chicken Rice at Upper Boon Keng Road.
He charges $2.50 for a standard plate of chicken rice, but his rent amounts to about $2,100 per month, which is the price he bid for the stall during the NEA’s tender exercise, a standard practice hawkers must go through before they can run a stall.
While he feels this is expensive, he believes a lower bid wouldn’t have been enough to secure the stall.
Meanwhile, his manpower costs are close to $2,000 a month. “We only have one worker at the moment as we cannot afford an extra pair of hands right now,” said Gan.
He added that raising prices, even by 50 cents, would cause business to drop. “It’s sad that hawkers have to sell more dishes to try and cover costs.
“Everyone is willing to pay $8 to $9 for a plate of chicken rice in an air-conditioned location, but are not willing to pay half the price in hawker centres.”
There are even days when he has lost money. He recalled making only $40 at the end of a 12-hour working day recently, after taking the rent and other costs into consideration.
Struggling for profit
Dexter Ng and Leon Chen, owners of Alan Seafood Restaurant at Lower Delta Road, pay a whopping $4,000 a month in rent and maintenance to a company that rents the entire coffeeshop from Mapletree.
“We feel the rent is a bit too high for this area and should be lower. If the rent was lower, we would be able to make a decent profit margin,” said Ng.
However, the bulk of their costs come from foreign worker levies, rising ingredient prices and marketing costs. “Prices of ingredients such as crabs have risen from $30 to $40 per kilo due to high demand,” Ng said.
The problem has gotten so bad that older hawkers are choosing to retire, while fewer young people are entering the industry.
Ng reckons that higher costs are killing the hawker culture. “Rent and the cost of ingredients are rising, while the price of food doesn’t rise as customers expect hawker food to be cheap.”
More than fishballs
The issue attracted national attention last year when Douglas Ng, a young fishball noodle hawker, took to Facebook to air his frustrations about tendering for a stall at the new Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre, operated by social enterprise NTUC Foodfare.
With the minimum price of fishball noodles capped at $2.70, and the cost of quality ingredients “so high”, he was worried the profit margin would be small.
“They set the price for spaghetti at $5.80,” he wrote, stating that such a system isn’t fair.
“What kind of living am I going to make if the profit margin is so low? The heritage is dying. If they want (the younger generation) to come in, give them a better profit,” he added.
His post went viral and got a response from then-Minister of Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) Vivian Balakrishnan, who felt that steps had been taken to reduce costs for hawkers, including building more hawker centres, banning subletting and abolishing the concept of “reserve rent” for hawker stalls. As a result, some stalls have been rented for as low as $10 a month, noted Mr Balakrishnan.
“I made it very clear to (NTUC) Foodfare that they are not to charge high rents,” he said, emphasising that the top priority is to ensure good, affordable food for residents.
Not for profit
When contacted, a spokesperson for NTUC Foodfare said its tendership process for hawkers is based on a not-for-profit model. In fact, the weightage assigned for tendered rent is only 40 percent, while the balance 60 percent is based on other criteria such as quality and variety.
This is in contrast to the NEA’s tender system, which is based on awarding the tender to the highest bidder.
Although NTUC Foodfare does not offer any rental subsidies, it tries to help hawkers manage their business costs through various assistance programmes. For instance, it has introduced a bulk purchase opt-in programme for common ingredients such as rice, eggs and flour.
Business grants and schemes matching initiatives have also been put in place. “We are working with a partner to help new hawkers get acquainted, and help them apply for some of these grants that can help in productivity, (such as in the purchase of) sugarcane machines and noodle boilers,” said the spokesperson.
In addition, a central dishwashing system allows hawkers to rely less on staff to help them clean cutlery.
L-R: Samuel Gan and Tham Nam Yew are working hard to keep the hawker trade alive.
Still going strong
57-year-old Tham Nam Yew has been a hawker for the past 30 years. The owner of Fai Kee Fishhead Beehoon rents a stall from the NEA at Commonwealth Crescent. He told PropertyGuru that his workers’ wages and cleaner’s fees form the bulk of his operation costs.
“We are only allowed to hire Singaporeans or permanent residents, so wages must be high enough to match the market rate,” said Tham. For instance, his cleaner’s fees are approximately $600 per month. At the same time, the cost of ingredients has also shot up.
“I would say that ingredients and wages have increased by approximately 200 percent since I first started,” said Tham.
But he’s still able to make a decent living because of subsidies and a loyal customer base which he’s built over the years. Tham pays subsidised rent for his stall under the NEA’s relocation scheme, after the current premises were upgraded.
Still, he pays $500 in monthly rent, which is two-and-a-half times more than the $200 he originally paid back in 1985.
PropertyGuru reached out to the NEA for comment on the issue of higher rental costs, but did not receive a response. However, NTUC Foodfare’s spokesperson attributed the rise to general price inflation, which is not limited to rent. “Rent has indeed increased with all things, but in perspective of a corresponding rise in food prices as compared to 30 years ago, we believe rental costs are still within a reasonable range.”
Words of wisdom
Tham believes being a hawker is still sustainable for now, and has this advice for young hawkers. “It may be easy to start a business, but it is not easy to sustain one. You need to have a clear vision, strong culinary skills, have enough capital to hold the fort for six months, and the tenacity to make things work.”
Contrary to the belief that the hawker trade is at risk of dying out, NTUC Foodfare revealed that demand for hawker stalls has remained healthy. “The tender for Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre was oversubscribed with 300 applications for 28 stalls,” said the spokesperson, adding that there will be 20 new hawker centres built in the next 10 years.
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