Red boxes the same as red packets to HDB shop owners

Daniel Cheong, a 37-year-old, runs an optical shop at Marine Parade Central, which he leased from the HDB. He, however, is a landowner too. A lady selling accessories and mobile phones has been leasing the store space in front of Cheung’s shop for the past two years.

Cheung has yielded roughly $100 monthly to the town’s council for that space, which is marked off as a red box, and gets it out for more than $1,500.

The payment helps him to pay his own utility and rent bills, which can increase up to $12,000 per month, Cheung says.

His tenant, who just desired to be known as the 33 year-old lady Lynn, got her own shop nearby till the lease there drained her. Lynn says that being able to hold her business for a fraction of its original value has been a life saver already. ”As long as I don't affect his business, I think it's fine”.

“We need only the shop space, not the outside. We're not earning much renting out the outdoor area, we're just trying to stay afloat and make ends meet since costs are so high”, Cheong said.

The Heartlanders are going to be recognised with the yellow or red boxes that draw the paseos in locality centres. More than half of the 20 shops in Mr Cheong’s vicinity have rented their outdoor space, for roughly $1,500 per month.

Other shops can price as much as $3,000 each month due to their location, which are in front of the hawker centre, for instance. Just enough for a rent space, which measures only 2m by 1m.

As a result, the neighbourhoods are filled with stalls, selling anything from lingerie to baby clothes, to toiletries to hand bags. Being most popular are counters selling accessories and cellphones.

The shopkeepers consider this as a good thing as it becomes more of a life saver for them. They say that the global financial crisis has hit the business and need these renters to help them get by.

However, in some places, that source of profit is hard to obtain. A market keeper residing in Jurong West Avenue1 just recently handled procuring a tenant selling clothes and wallets after a long dry curse. The 50 year-old shopkeeper, operating a shop selling religious artefacts, said, “Times are bad, so there isn't high demand anymore”.