Food centre re-opens to price hike grouses

[investor101]

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?

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.