Hawkers, market stallholders to get up to S$1,200 in rental support

SINGAPORE: Hawkers and market stallholders will get rental support under a S$900 million (US$697 million) support package to ease cost pressures from the Middle East crisis.Hawkers running cooked food stalls will receive S$1,200 in rental support, while market stallholders will get S$600, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Low Yen Ling said on Wednesday (Jul 29).The support will be disbursed over six months from September this year to February 2027.The support is for stallholders in hawker centres and markets managed by the government or government-appointed operators, including socially conscious enterprise hawker centres run by private operators appointed by the National Environment Agency (NEA).The rental relief is expected to benefit 15,200 stalls, comprising 6,900 cooked food stalls and 8,300 market stalls. Stallholders will be informed separately about the eligibility criteria, said Ms Low.The support is meant to help sustain Singapore's hawker culture and to show that the government is a "responsible manager" of hawker centres and markets, she said. It will help offset rising costs for raw materials, packaging and utilities, which hawker associations and stallholders have raised with the government.The higher support for cooked food stalls reflects the wider range of cost pressures they face, such as energy costs for food preparation, Ms Low added.