Food centre re-opens to price hike grouses

MyPaper
Monday, Jan 13, 2014
8 0 0

Food prices have gone up at the Tanjong Pagar Plaza Market & Food Centre since it re-opened this month, due to increases in rent and prices of ingredients.

Prices have gone up by about 50 cents at some stalls, and customers have taken their grouses online, Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday.

The Chinese paper said that rents for the food stalls have gone up by about 20 per cent on average. The prices of prawns, cooking oil and other foodstuff have also risen in the 10 months the centre was under renovation.

A stall assistant, Ms Liu, who sells Hakka thunder-tea rice, said that prices have been upped because the rent has increased by $200 to more than $1,100.

Mr Liu Jin Cheng, 50, who runs the prawn-noodle stall, said his rent increased only from $180 to $192 as he is a first-generation hawker, but he now has to pay more for food ingredients.

"Compared to a year ago, the price of 1kg of prawns has doubled from around $8 to $16. Two kilogrammes of cooking oil cost $3, now it's $6; the cleaning fees rose from $300 to $400, so we had to raise prices," he said.

But there were also stall owners who kept their old prices.

Lor-mee stall owner Cai Lan Ying, 60, said costs have gone up, but she will adjust the amount of ingredients served in her dish according to price fluctuations.

Not sure why people complain about increase in food prices or rents.

No sane land owner would invest in expensive renovations if he can't extract higher rents in return. It would be like investing in a stock with no expectations of any kind of financial returns in dividends or price increase.

If you were a landlord, would you spend money on renovations and repairs if you can't charge your tenant higher rental?

(14-01-2014, 11:16 PM)pianist Wrote: MyPaper
Monday, Jan 13, 2014
8 0 0

Food prices have gone up at the Tanjong Pagar Plaza Market & Food Centre since it re-opened this month, due to increases in rent and prices of ingredients.

Prices have gone up by about 50 cents at some stalls, and customers have taken their grouses online, Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday.

The Chinese paper said that rents for the food stalls have gone up by about 20 per cent on average. The prices of prawns, cooking oil and other foodstuff have also risen in the 10 months the centre was under renovation.

A stall assistant, Ms Liu, who sells Hakka thunder-tea rice, said that prices have been upped because the rent has increased by $200 to more than $1,100.

Mr Liu Jin Cheng, 50, who runs the prawn-noodle stall, said his rent increased only from $180 to $192 as he is a first-generation hawker, but he now has to pay more for food ingredients.

"Compared to a year ago, the price of 1kg of prawns has doubled from around $8 to $16. Two kilogrammes of cooking oil cost $3, now it's $6; the cleaning fees rose from $300 to $400, so we had to raise prices," he said.

But there were also stall owners who kept their old prices.

Lor-mee stall owner Cai Lan Ying, 60, said costs have gone up, but she will adjust the amount of ingredients served in her dish according to price fluctuations.

(15-01-2014, 12:12 AM)investor101 Wrote: Not sure why people complain about increase in food prices or rents.

No sane land owner would invest in expensive renovations if he can't extract higher rents in return. It would be like investing in a stock with no expectations of any kind of financial returns in dividends or price increase.

If you were a landlord, would you spend money on renovations and repairs if you can't charge your tenant higher rental?

(14-01-2014, 11:16 PM)pianist Wrote: MyPaper
Monday, Jan 13, 2014
8 0 0

Food prices have gone up at the Tanjong Pagar Plaza Market & Food Centre since it re-opened this month, due to increases in rent and prices of ingredients.

Prices have gone up by about 50 cents at some stalls, and customers have taken their grouses online, Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday.

The Chinese paper said that rents for the food stalls have gone up by about 20 per cent on average. The prices of prawns, cooking oil and other foodstuff have also risen in the 10 months the centre was under renovation.

A stall assistant, Ms Liu, who sells Hakka thunder-tea rice, said that prices have been upped because the rent has increased by $200 to more than $1,100.

Mr Liu Jin Cheng, 50, who runs the prawn-noodle stall, said his rent increased only from $180 to $192 as he is a first-generation hawker, but he now has to pay more for food ingredients.

"Compared to a year ago, the price of 1kg of prawns has doubled from around $8 to $16. Two kilogrammes of cooking oil cost $3, now it's $6; the cleaning fees rose from $300 to $400, so we had to raise prices," he said.

But there were also stall owners who kept their old prices.

Lor-mee stall owner Cai Lan Ying, 60, said costs have gone up, but she will adjust the amount of ingredients served in her dish according to price fluctuations.

i have seen a few Hawker centres after they were were renovated. They just paint the area & just do the maintainance which was due for a few a years & call it renovation. no new seats or facilities except for may be a try collection centre if some of these centres. its not exactly a renovation.

main reason for people's anger is that they feel the big G is acting like a big Monopoly & extracting profits from the common man. In most fo the countries, when it is run by Govt agencies most of the time its on No profit basis.

When govt agencies are hell bent on profit, you cannot stop the pvt companies from doing so & it leads to upward spiral of rising costs in which the only beneficaries are big corporates & smaller players like consumers & stall operators are the ultimate losers.

hence i can understand the anger.

eventually all the 30- years lease hawkers centres will be taken back by Govt (legacy of the seatwarmer regime).
So operating hawker centres will go back to HDB/ENV. Gov need to relook at different KPI instead of just $$$.

(15-01-2014, 12:12 AM)investor101 Wrote: Not sure why people complain about increase in food prices or rents.

No sane land owner would invest in expensive renovations if he can't extract higher rents in return. It would be like investing in a stock with no expectations of any kind of financial returns in dividends or price increase.

If you were a landlord, would you spend money on renovations and repairs if you can't charge your tenant higher rental?

(14-01-2014, 11:16 PM)pianist Wrote: MyPaper
Monday, Jan 13, 2014
8 0 0

Food prices have gone up at the Tanjong Pagar Plaza Market & Food Centre since it re-opened this month, due to increases in rent and prices of ingredients.

Prices have gone up by about 50 cents at some stalls, and customers have taken their grouses online, Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday.

The Chinese paper said that rents for the food stalls have gone up by about 20 per cent on average. The prices of prawns, cooking oil and other foodstuff have also risen in the 10 months the centre was under renovation.

A stall assistant, Ms Liu, who sells Hakka thunder-tea rice, said that prices have been upped because the rent has increased by $200 to more than $1,100.

Mr Liu Jin Cheng, 50, who runs the prawn-noodle stall, said his rent increased only from $180 to $192 as he is a first-generation hawker, but he now has to pay more for food ingredients.

"Compared to a year ago, the price of 1kg of prawns has doubled from around $8 to $16. Two kilogrammes of cooking oil cost $3, now it's $6; the cleaning fees rose from $300 to $400, so we had to raise prices," he said.

But there were also stall owners who kept their old prices.

Lor-mee stall owner Cai Lan Ying, 60, said costs have gone up, but she will adjust the amount of ingredients served in her dish according to price fluctuations.

Rationally I understand the logic, and so long there is inflation, prices and rents are bound to move up. but I think there must be a line drawn to prevent excessive rent seeking behavior.

Its like I know ERP is meant to prevent road congestion and is good for me, but I can never feel good when the fees are increased.

(15-01-2014, 09:35 AM)grubb Wrote:

(15-01-2014, 12:12 AM)investor101 Wrote: Not sure why people complain about increase in food prices or rents.

No sane land owner would invest in expensive renovations if he can't extract higher rents in return. It would be like investing in a stock with no expectations of any kind of financial returns in dividends or price increase.

If you were a landlord, would you spend money on renovations and repairs if you can't charge your tenant higher rental?

(14-01-2014, 11:16 PM)pianist Wrote: MyPaper
Monday, Jan 13, 2014
8 0 0

Food prices have gone up at the Tanjong Pagar Plaza Market & Food Centre since it re-opened this month, due to increases in rent and prices of ingredients.

Prices have gone up by about 50 cents at some stalls, and customers have taken their grouses online, Lianhe Wanbao reported yesterday.

The Chinese paper said that rents for the food stalls have gone up by about 20 per cent on average. The prices of prawns, cooking oil and other foodstuff have also risen in the 10 months the centre was under renovation.

A stall assistant, Ms Liu, who sells Hakka thunder-tea rice, said that prices have been upped because the rent has increased by $200 to more than $1,100.

Mr Liu Jin Cheng, 50, who runs the prawn-noodle stall, said his rent increased only from $180 to $192 as he is a first-generation hawker, but he now has to pay more for food ingredients.

"Compared to a year ago, the price of 1kg of prawns has doubled from around $8 to $16. Two kilogrammes of cooking oil cost $3, now it's $6; the cleaning fees rose from $300 to $400, so we had to raise prices," he said.

But there were also stall owners who kept their old prices.

Lor-mee stall owner Cai Lan Ying, 60, said costs have gone up, but she will adjust the amount of ingredients served in her dish according to price fluctuations.

Rationally I understand the logic, and so long there is inflation, prices and rents are bound to move up. but I think there must be a line drawn to prevent excessive rent seeking behavior.

Its like I know ERP is meant to prevent road congestion and is good for me, but I can never feel good when the fees are increased.

higher rents lead to high capital values. then property investors will buy using loan. then the monthly loans payments will go into higher rentals. This is how asset inflation fed back into CPI in a loop.

Govt starting to recognise this by stopping the HDB commercial properties reassignment (what took them so long???), where the reassignment fees is capital gains.

Govt need to give thots to "unintended consequences" and "perverse incentive" in their policy making.

This hawker centre is now like brand new. very good ventilation, increased seats. and bright. The job was very well done.

Rental up $200. I think is justified... they pay $$$$$$$ for the upgrade too.