Fortitude Budget: Government tenants to get rental waivers of up to 2 months

THE Singapore government is extending rental relief for its tenants while ensuring that these measures flow through to help sub-tenants, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat said on Tuesday.

Commercial tenants and hawkers in properties managed by government agencies will get two more months of rental waivers, he said in his Fortitude Budget speech in Parliament.

This means the total rental waiver for commercial tenants will now be four months. Stallholders in hawker centres and markets managed by government agencies will get a total of five months of rental waivers.

Industrial, office and agricultural tenants of government agencies will get one more month of rental waiver, bringing their total rental waivers to two months.

Mr Heng said the government will ensure these measures also benefit sub-tenants, many of whom are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This will dovetail with measures for SMEs that are now being studied by Law Minister K Shanmugam, he said.