Sale of five wet markets hits a snag

No approval yet as HDB has not received application for sale to Sheng Siong

A QUESTION mark now hangs over the sale and impending closure of five heartland wet markets, a development which has riled residents and stallholders in those neighbourhoods.

The Housing Board (HDB) has stepped in to say that it has yet to receive an application from boutique property developer Heeton Holdings for clearance to sell the wet markets to supermarket chain Sheng Siong.

Without the HDB's go-ahead, the sale would be illegal.

Sheng Siong had told The Straits Times that it planned to build 'air-conditioned markets' on the sites, and affected stallholders said letters they received last month gave them until mid-December to move out.

The five wet markets - in Choa Chu Kang Street 62, Choa Chu Kang Avenue 1, Serangoon Avenue3, Bukit Batok West Avenue 8 and Fajar Road - are among the few privately owned wet markets here. Heeton bought them between 1994 and 1996 for use as wet markets in separate tenders called by the HDB.

The HDB's remarks yesterday were a reminder that, although Heeton is now landlord to the individual stallholders, the sale and change of use of such public-housing facilities are still subject to official approval.

An HDB spokesman, noting the news reports, said it wished to clarify that such a sale of HDB premises would first require the board's approval.

She added that if there was to be a change of use, other relevant authorities would also need to give the go-ahead.

Contacted, Sheng Siong said the sale would take another four months to close, as it had only exercised the option to buy the sites and placed a deposit.

Heeton said it was aware that it had to put in the relevant paperwork to the HDB and that it was doing so.

Its chief operating officer Danny Low, when asked why the company had sent out eviction letters to the stallholders before the sale had been approved, said it had agreed to hand over the markets to Sheng Siong in early January.

'The approvals from the relevant authorities will take a while. If we wait until we receive the approvals, then it will be short notice to the stallholders.'

Sheng Siong, when asked the same question, said it did not have anything to add to what Heeton had already said.

A new development may offer some relief to stallholders anxious about their livelihoods: Heeton, which also owns the 58-stall Tampines Mart wet market, said it will offer 20 for rent on a case-by-case basis and at a 20-per-cent discount to stallholders left jobless.

'This is to give them a new head start at the new premises as well as to soften their start-up costs,' said Mr Low.

Although the mid-December deadline for moving out has since been pushed back by between three and six months for the markets, stallholders still feel hard done by.

Fishmonger Sia Chen Theng, 39, a father of two who has been at the Serangoon Ave 3 wet market for two years, said: 'This is not the way things should be done. The market should be sold first. How can they just ask us to move out like that? There is no approval to change the use of the market.'

Stallholders said that when they asked Sheng Siong and Heeton repeatedly whether approval had been obtained to change the use of the premises, they were told 'the sale would definitely get through'.

So father of three Ong Teck Huat, 40, who has a vegetable stall in the Choa Chu Kang St 62 market, is keeping his fingers crossed: 'At least now, there is some hope that their application will not be approved.'

Source: Straits Times, 2 Oct 2009