Thieves Market vendors get 50% rebate to take up stalls in hawker centres

SINGAPORE — Eligible vendors at the Sungei Road Thieves Market who have applied to take up lock-up stalls in hawker centres will have their rents halved for their first two years of operations, said the National Environment Agency (NEA) on Friday (Jun 16).


To be eligible for the subsidy —offered “on a goodwill basis to assist (vendors) in their transition” — the applicants must be staying in a Housing and Development Board flat and must not own more than one property.

With less than a month left to the closure of the flea market, 27 vendors have been allocated lock-up stalls at several hawker centres across Singapore, including Chinatown Market and Golden Mile Centre.


The NEA has reserved more than 40 lock-up stalls at market rent — which ranges from S$240 to S$900 — for the Thieves Market vendors, who will have to move out of Sungei Road on July 10 as the site will be set aside for future residential development.


Mdm Tan Guo Mei is among the handful of vendors who received the subsidy. The 49-year-old, who moved into a lock-up stall in Chinatown Market on Wednesday, said the subsidy helps “relieve part of the burden” of moving from the rent-free Thieves Market to a hawker stall.


For the past five years, Mdm Tan used to bring home S$800 to S$1,000 a month at the Thieves Market peddling wares such as Chinese paintings, antiques and other memorabilia.


Now, even with the rebate, she is expecting to fork out up to S$800 a month at the hawker centre to cover the subsidised rent and utilities.

She plans to raise the prices of her goods by between S$1 and S$4 to make up for the rise in operation costs.

However, Mdm Tan is optimsitic that her regular customers will continue to patronise her stall in Chinatown after the Thieves Market shuts.


Another vendor, Mr Chin Kim Bon, who has been tending to his stall at North Bridge Road Market for the past month, said sales pale in comparison to when he was at the Thieves’ Market.


“Most who come by here are office workers who look out for different things. I might have to change what I sell, but that will take some time,” he added.


Apart from the stalls that have been set aside, the vendors can secure stalls through NEA’s monthly tender. However, these vendors will not be eligible for any rental rebate as they would have bid for a stall at a rent that they are comfortable with.

11 vendors who still hold permits issued in the 1970s and 1980s to hawk their wares at the Thieves Market were offered a waiver of rental for the first year and a 50 per cent rebate off subsidised rent for the second year.