East Coast Lagoon Food Village Gets Eye-Watering $8,050 Monthly Rent Bid For Hawker Stall

For the uninitiated, the NEA releases a public monthly list for the five highest tender bids for hawker centres and wet markets here. And for the month of October 2021, East Coast Lagoon Food Village received a stall rental bid for an eye-watering $8,050 a month. The popular makan spot is home to famous stalls like Haron Satay 55, Lagoon Chicken Curry Puff, Song Kee Fried Oyster and Geylang 29 Charcoal Fried Hokkien Mee.

Just to illustrate how high the bid is, the previous top bid for a stall at the hawker centre was $2,500 in August 2021. In comparison, the latest highest bid in August for Amoy Street Food Centre in the prime CBD area was $2,809.

The list was also highlighted by hawker Melvin Chew, who runs Chinatown stall Jin Ji Teochew Braised Duck & Kway Chap, on his Facebook hawker food group Hawkers United. In his post, he wrote that his “jaw nearly dropped” when he saw the bid, pointing out: “That’s only rental hor. You still need to pay town council fee, table-cleaning fee, all [kinds] of bills… I wonder if the tenderer understood the word ‘hawker’?”​​​​​​​

Netizens who saw the Facebook post also voiced out about the impact of the bid on hawker food costs, speculating that the stall might charge “restaurant prices” to cover its rent. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, even a well-loved longtime hawker stall like Empress Place Teochew Beef Kway Teow had succumbed to rental woes.

Photos: East Coast Lagoon Food Village/ Mark Lee