Govt will monitor rental rises of HDB coffee shops

SINGAPORE - Member of Parliament Foo Mee Har asked the Minister for National Development in Parliament on Monday what safeguards are the Government putting in place to moderate potential rental increases for HDB coffee shop tenants in light of escalating transacted prices for HDB coffee shops.

Here is Mr Khaw Boon Wan's written reply:

There are 714 eating houses in HDB estates, of which 429 are sold and 285 are on rental.

Whether sold or rental eating houses, the rents of individual stalls are negotiated between the eating house operators and the stallholders. The operator has to set the stall rental price carefully to ensure good take-up rates whereas the stallholders have to ensure the rents are not too high as to render their businesses not viable. These are business decisions in which HDB does not intervene.

Although the transacted prices of eating houses have gone up, the average number of transactions is 33 cases per year for the past 3 years. They form less than 8% of the total number of sold eating houses. With HDB constructing about 30 new eating houses currently and NEA building 10 new hawker centres, the upcoming supply of new cooked food stalls should help to keep overall stall rentals in check.

We will nevertheless closely monitor the commercial properties market. If necessary, we will intervene to prevent speculation and excessive price increases in this market.