The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) announced today (September 30) that in order to put vacant stalls in public markets into more effective use and to provide job opportunities for the grassroots, open auctions for a total of 138 vacant stalls in 33 public markets will be held in October.
 
     The retail commodities allowed for sale in these stalls cover non-food related dry or wet goods, food related dry or wet goods, fresh meat, fish, siu mei and lo mei, etc. The tenancy agreement is a one-year fixed term from November this year, with no right of renewal upon expiry of the tenancy agreement. Depending on the size and location of individual stalls, the upset price of the monthly rent of the stalls ranges from $110 to $11,900. Tenants can enjoy a reduction of the monthly rental by 75 per cent from November this year to next March.
 
     A spokesman for the FEHD said, "Bidders for the market stalls must be at least 18 years old and ordinarily reside in Hong Kong. To allow more people to bid for the stalls and increase customer choices by enhancing the diversity in terms of variety of stalls, there will be a limit on the number of stalls to be rented by a single tenant. No person who is renting a stall under the one-year short term tenancy scheme is allowed to rent more than one stall of a one-year short term tenancy in the same market. Also, any person who is currently a stall tenant is not allowed to bid in the first round of auction for any stalls in the same market, but will only be allowed to bid on one stall in the second round of auction."
 
     Dates and venues of the auctions and the number of stalls are as follows:

Hong Kong Island and Islands District
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Auction date: October 11 (Monday)
Auction venue: Room 915, 9/F, Lockhart Road Municipal Services Building
Number of stalls: 64

New Territories
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Auction date: October 20 (Wednesday)
Auction venue: Kwai Fong Community Hall
Number of stalls: 44

Kowloon
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Auction date: October 25 (Monday)
Auction venue: Room 410, 4/F, FEHD Nam Cheong Offices and Vehicle Depot
Number of stalls: 30

     To reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19, persons entering the auction venue are required to pay attention to and comply with the preventive measures implemented at the auction venue, including temperature checks before admission and mask wearing at all times.
 
     Details of the auction of public market stalls will be uploaded to the FEHD website (www.fehd.gov.hk). Bidders interested in the auction may visit the department's website or contact the respective District Environmental Hygiene Office.

Ends/Thursday, September 30, 2021
Issued at HKT 11:00

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