Last year, when Darius Cheung, co-founder of a property search portal, wanted to rent a house in Singapore, he met with many reluctant real estate agents. Many of them seemed interested at first, but would turn him down later. He found out why when one realtor gave him a rather shocking response: “Sorry your wife is Indian, (the) landlord won’t rent to you.”
Indians who have spent some time in the city-state know that they aren’t the first choice as tenants for many landlords, though Chinese people from the mainland have it even worse: they are said to be the least preferred by Singapore’s property owners.
That was evident from a quick search with the keywords “No Indians, no PRC (People’s Republic of China)” on two property websites. Gumtree.sg turned up 29 announcements with these words and PropertyGuru showed 63.
On the face of it, this would seem to be evidence of racial disharmony in a country where the government imposes a harsh penalty on instances of racial prejudice. But many see the discrimination in the rental market as an expression of the clash between the old and the new—the discomfort of the country’s long-time citizens with the influx of foreigners in the multi-ethnic, wealthy country. Full story...
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Indians who have spent some time in the city-state know that they aren’t the first choice as tenants for many landlords, though Chinese people from the mainland have it even worse: they are said to be the least preferred by Singapore’s property owners.
That was evident from a quick search with the keywords “No Indians, no PRC (People’s Republic of China)” on two property websites. Gumtree.sg turned up 29 announcements with these words and PropertyGuru showed 63.
On the face of it, this would seem to be evidence of racial disharmony in a country where the government imposes a harsh penalty on instances of racial prejudice. But many see the discrimination in the rental market as an expression of the clash between the old and the new—the discomfort of the country’s long-time citizens with the influx of foreigners in the multi-ethnic, wealthy country. Full story...
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- Racial discrimination pervasive in Singapore rental market ...
- 3 youths arrested in Singapore for racist Facebook remarks about Indians...
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