Why is it that hawker food keeps getting more expensive lah?

Few big factors stacking up. One, ingredient inflation, global food prices rose and Singapore imports almost everything. Two, GST went up, which touches everything in the supply chain. Three, rental costs, especially in coffeeshops and food courts run by big operators who bid up stall rents. Four, the manpower crunch, older hawkers retiring and few young people wanting the hard hours, so labour is scarce and pricier. Five, packaging and delivery-related costs as more order online. It all compounds. The 5 to 6 dollar plate reflects real cost increases, not profiteering for most. The genuinely cheap hawker centres tend to be the government-managed ones with subsidised rent, that's why prices vary so much between locations.

Something people miss, it's partly about where you're eating. A hawker centre run by the authorities with rental controls will still have 3.50 to 4.50 options. A stall in a shiny mall food court or a privately-managed coffeeshop pays multiples of the rent, so the plate is 6 plus. Same food, different overheads passed to you. So it's not just inflation, it's the commercialisation of stall rentals. Add rising ingredient and gas costs and the manpower shortage on top. My tip, seek out the older HDB heartland hawker centres, prices are noticeably gentler there. The expensive ones are subsidising landlord margins, not just feeding the hawker's family.