Subletting of Hawker Stalls

Ms Denise Phua Lay Peng asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (a) if his Ministry will review the current practice of allowing hawker centre stall holders to sublet their rented stalls; and (b) how the Ministry intends to curb the potential high profiteering and resultant price increase that occur as a result of the subletting practice.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: Under our current policy, stallholders of subsidised rental stalls are not permitted to sublet their stalls.

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For non-subsidised stalls, limited subletting is allowed since the stallholders are theoretically not enjoying a subsidy. However, we must avoid a situation where persons tender and sublet the stalls without any intention to operate them personally.

Our Ministry will be reviewing the subletting policy to tighten the conditions under which stalls can be sublet. We will announce the new measures when the review is completed.