A woman who successfully bid for a hawker stall with a record monthly rental of over $10,000 has had a change of heart.
She ended the tenancy agreement for the stall to sell drinks the same day she signed it, said the National Environment Agency (NEA).
Calling the $10,028 bid for the Chomp Chomp Food Centre stall an "outlier", NEA added yesterday it was the highest successful bid received to date.
The tender was lodged last month by Ms Lim Ah Ber to rent a stall in the popular food haunt in Serangoon Gardens. She received a Letter of Offer on Aug 21.
NEA said the average successful tender bid received for cooked food stalls at Chomp Chomp since June last year was $1,707.50.
The agency told The Straits Times that the average successful tender bid for its cooked food stalls over the last three years was $ 1,514 a month.
NEA said the lowest bid was $5 and the highest $5,001, excluding an "outlier bid" of $10,000 in 2016 for a stall at People's Park hawker centre. In that case, the bidder also terminated his tenancy before he started operations.
Some Chomp Chomp stall owners told ST that Ms Lim's business would not have been profitable if she had gone ahead with the tenancy agreement.
Mr Charlie Goh, 68, owner of Charlie Corner Health Fresh Juices, said: "Including operating costs, my monthly expenses amount to only $1,000. Even so, it's hard for me to make $3,000 each month, let alone $10,000."
The $10,028 Chomp Chomp bid is significantly higher than the figures for many other hawker centre stalls in the latest July bidding exercise. The highest tendered bid for a cooked food stall in Golden Mile Food Centre was $2,029.
One of the lowest successful bids in the same bidding exercise was $49 a month for an Indian food stall in Mei Chin Road.
In a letter published in ST last year, NEA addressed public concerns about high bids by hawkers driving up food prices. It cited a government study on the possible drivers affecting hawker food prices, which showed that stall rentals form only about 12 per cent of total costs.
As for the Chomp Chomp stall, Ms Lim's bid was almost triple that of the second highest bid of $3,504.68, which was submitted by Mr Lim Junjie, according to a document listing the successful tenderers in July posted on the NEA website.
Mr Lim won the bid for another similar stall in Chomp Chomp that was up for tender, with a rent of $4,018.70. He will be selling drinks at the unit.
NEA said Ms Lim signed the tenancy agreement after receiving the Letter of Offer and paid up the required charges, so she will not be barred from participating in future tender exercises and will have her deposit returned.
The agency said stallholders who want to terminate their tenancy agreement must give one month's notice, and pay their monthly rental and other operating charges.
"The successful tenderer in this case had given the requisite termination notice and also paid the first month's stall rental and operating charges," NEA said.
• Additional reporting by Gilaine Ng
