Why Rental Discrimination is Still Common in Singapore 

Rental racism is pretty common in Hong Kong as well, landlords can say they don't rent to South Asians or black people straight up without getting into trouble. The only difference between Singapore is that people of Chinese descent gets the "white people" type privilege and status while in Hong Kong white people are still perceived as the "highest class" above the local Chinese and other East Asian descent. It's appalling how much systematic racism there is in Asia that is without physical violence

As a British born brown person I moved to Singapore for a new job a few years ago and even with my British accent experienced the same issues. Very ignorant, racist and sad that this happens in this day and age.

I used to live in a hostel with fellow Filipinos here in Malaysia. When I decided to leave the hostel and rent a room for myself, I started searching for room or house rental on an app. Upon searching, I found out that many of the house owners or Agents (mainly Chinese) don't allow Malays or Indians or even South Asian workers to rent on their houses. Typically written on their ad was "House for rent : Only Chinese and Expat". I felt bad and worried about it because I'm Filipino and I might get rejected.

I’m Singaporean and I rented out my flat to 4 Malaysian Indian guys. No problem at all. In fact they’re very responsible tenants and I love them all. 👍

i've been to singapore once for a few weeks. even from a visitor's point of view the racial segregation is very subtle, but it's clearly there.

Happens in japan/tokyo all the time as well. Foreigners know well that their chance of being accepted to rent an apartment is basically 50/50. Even japanese people with a foreign mother or father can get rejected. Japanese people married to foreigners can be rejected. When it comes to finding housing, it’s a very stressful situation.

I had lots of friends used to work in Singapore saying that there was a high level of racism in the country.

This was happening 30 yrs ago, when I decided that money wasn't the only goal in life ..At IBM where my husband worked, meetings were being conducted in Mandarin, they just told the 5 non Indians to learn Mandarin. At the same time when I enrolled my son at Henry Park primary, to take Mandarin as second language, they refused saying that we are tamils and only Tamil Should be our second language Mandarin can only be third ..plus they don't have a Tamil teacher, so enrolling him would lose my chances of getting a school of first choice..only if they have 8 students can they hire a Tamil teacher ..so unless 8 of us Indians go together , it would never happen .I decided this was NOT the country for my kids to grow up...I was an Indian but from UK , however I did marry a Singapore Indian.Yes racism exists is every country , some more than others..even in India, its castism..But in Singapore , it was education , racism and how the government interfere with personal issues like my third child.. PM Lee Kwan Yee annouced in 1987, that only educated mothers produced smart kids so only educated moms can have more than 2 kids !! He further went to say that only University was 'Real education ' I was from Singapore Poly..I was perfectly happy with 2 kids but how can one say I am not educated and that my kids would not be smart!! Hence I had a third child as it was the year of dragon 1988..This is God wish..not the PM ..he's not God!! and that made the decision for me to leave the country. Singapore is a great country for hols if you have money and no kids ..We left the country 30 yrs ago , with 3 kids aged 9,6and 1 , left two good paying jobs, my nanny of 10 yrs , my inlaws..It was tough ..but today we are very very happy in Toronto with kids happily married and grandkids ..

same thing in poland, there is a lot of rent offers that clearly state "no ukrainians"

I’m a Malay and experienced first hand on how it feels like to be rejected based on race alone. My husband and I tried looking for rooms to rent last year after CB period but you can say that 98 percent rejected us as landlord prefers Chinese as they feel secured. It’s so sad. Most of the time they will give reasoning such as racial preference and that landlord feels more secured, but on the second thought, they profiled minorities as someone ‘bad’ or capable of murder or committing crimes! It sounds subtle because they use it as racial preference but it’s freaking not! It’s just racism! They associate minorities with ‘bad people with poor qualities’. Of course you can deny this all you want because you are not a living minority in Singapore. You didn’t have to experience this like us.

The only time a Sg Chinese will accept they are racist is when they get the same treatment in Australia. Staying amongst their crowd they wont notice until it happens to them. In my first few weeks in Sg, I cudnt tell the difference betn Sg Chn and PRC. They all looked the same to me. Then someone told me if they are speaking anglicized Mandarin, that Sg Chn, and lil bit accent that Malaysian, and if they are spitting saliva with all the intonations that your Prc. I've even seen some of them use the Kitchen as storage room and for light cooking, like maggie mie.

During my 7 years of stay in Singapore, I have very many fond memories of the place. But those great memories are sadly sullied by a few racist experiences that me and my spouse experienced. Yes, we experienced rental racism on few occasions when we were on the lookout for new property to rent, taunts in hawker centers, irate taxi uncles venting frustration etc. I find Singaporeans overall very kind and considerate people. But the few incidents of racial nature can really color ones experience of the whole place. That I feel quite sad about Singapore. And I dont see us coming back to Singapore, however great life has been there. It is undeniable, racism exists in Singapore with Chinese being the aggressors in general. But I certainly think people born in the 2000s feel different about race relations and things will improve as this new generation with an overall integrative global view comes to the fore.

In Malaysia, even Indian landlords would discriminate against prospective Indian tenants.

Most people in the comments normalizing and justifying racism casually.

as a Muslim Indonesian working n staying in Singapore, I also experiencing the same thing. last time I tried to chat agent and tell them about my background then no update..or just reply once and then just gone..but when my Chinese friend tried to chat the agent reply right away 😅

Aside from landlord racial favouritism, racism is still a big deal in Singapore and it will NEVER stop.. I hate racism as most people does too as I grew up living in a block with at least 80% Chinese.. Believe it or not, my family & I are the only malays who are living in this block till this day.. Since I was a kid till now in my 30s, my neighbours especially the ones who stays the same storey as me, has been so welcoming, treat everyone with love, care and respect and we've been treating each other like family.. CNY, Hari Raya, Deepavali, we will always invite everyone for those living at same storey to our house to celebrate as one.. It has always been a great experience but the moment I step out from my neighborhood, things are different.. Racism is just everywhere.. Even up to this day at my work place where I've been working here for 10 years now, I only have one great colleague and she's Indian and she also has one great colleague and that's me. We are professional colleagues at work but lovers after 5pm.. The rest are Chinese and some Filipinos but literally, none of them has any interest in talking to both of us but we're okay with that.. But the funny part is that those Filipinos are also trying to push us aside and mixed with the Chinese... Wait a minute...... I'm sure if I say this, people will say I'm racist too but I grew up with Singapore having 4 ethnicities, Malay, Chinese, Indian and Eurasian... Which part of it says Filipino?? It's funny... Anyway, that's my story to share.. Thanks for reading but one thing for sure, if we can stop Racism, our country, our people will be unstoppable.. I would still love my Singaporeans even though if you hate me.. It's ok.. TC guys!

Report on the not-at-all-hidden rental discrimination in Japan, where realtors and building owners tell non-Japanese tenants outright "Sorry, we don't let white/black/Indian/Chinese people live here." When I finally found the loft I was looking for, as a closing assurance, the real estate agent told me "And it is great because Chinese people aren't allowed to rent here." Like I should be happy that I have ascended, as a white guy with a stable job, to enjoy a larger fraction of the privilege Japanese people take for granted. That was after being rejected flatly for race on three other Apartments. This was 2020. It's all legal and done as loudly as possible. They have no shame about it.

I find it quite ironic when those in Asia bring up the topic of racism in the West, when their own countries lack protections against practices of racial bias, protections that in the West are firmly codified and enforced. Some countries, like Malaysia, have racial biases enshrined in their Constitution!

It is even worse as a malay person when you realise you are being discriminated on your own ancestor land

This honestly made me realise how prominent racism in everyday life is, when i studied in thailand it was either ‘ur pretty fair for an indian’ or blackie, the chinese students went ahead to call me dog for the whole two years and the teacher made fun of my country by laughing at garlic pickles from india, the thai kid told me my hair was greasy and curly hair was for stupid black people, the taiwanese kid stole money from my wallet but called me poor, the chinese kids told me that my country wasnt enough because we didnt have enough number of starbucks in it and the kids told me that i was from a slum from a dump in india , when i stayed in residencies that cost so much and attended international private school. That was just the beginning and it was in middle school, now they advocate for being feminist and antiracism when they are all hypocrites. They r all the replicas of societal stigmas, i hope they come to realize that what they did was wrong some day

:/ he is such a reasonable person like anyone, he is explaining his side calmly as possible!

Great video!! I guess Singaporeans of the majority race who discriminate against minorities in the rental market finally realise the impact of their actions once they leave Singapore and experience discrimination elsewhere.

I think at some level I managed to get through to my landlord. I'm a Singaporean Chinese and am renting from a Singaporean Chinese landlord. He was defending other landlords' racist preferences of non-[insert race/nationality] tenants because [said category] smell/behave/cook a certain way, that's why landlords don't want to rent to them. All the while he is saying that this not that they are racist. I told him that while they may not think of themselves as racist, such behaviour is quite clearly racist because it is not just about preferences, but widespread denial of housing to a subsegment of the population based on that. I also said that if landlords have fears that tenants don't take care of the property, they should deduct damages off the deposit, rather than barring tenants of an entire race or nationality completely. Somehow, that got through to him and he acknowledged that it is indeed true that such preferences are discriminatory. To the landlords, it's not that it is illegal to set discriminatory rules. Because your house, your rules. But that's precisely the point - your rules may be discriminatory. It is somewhat understandable if landlords are living under the same roof as their tenants, and have a preference for certain tenants to avoid conflict of lifestyles. To an extent it is a bit lazy, because that's the whole point of compromise when we live in a diverse society. If you rent out a space, they have to live by your rules, but you should also ethically accommodate to them. But for landlords renting out entire units, discriminatory renting is rather hard to defend. Again, yes, your house, your rules. I also understand that there may be a higher propensity for people from certain categories to not take care of the house. In that case, then deduct the money from the deposit after they leave instead of barring them from renting altogether, or you can even do check-ins with your tenants from time to time like my landlord does with me. The tenant should be punished because they damage the house, rather than because they belong to a certain race. If you're a Singaporean Chinese like I am, I encourage you to indicate racist behaviour to your peers if you see one. But if you really want to get through to them, it helps to say that it's the action or their policy that is racist, rather than calling them racist (even though they likely are) in their face because it puts them on the defensive (they will more than likely say that races are treated equally in Singapore by the government blablabla). It is true that Singaporeans are quite racist, and at some point, we need to learn that we are (especially Singaporean chinese like me). At this point, Singaporeans have huge cognitive dissonance because the veneer of equality of races is drummed into our psyche so much that many of them do not think racism exists in Singapore.

I had a wonderful tenancy experience with a Chinese landlord. I am sorry to hear that there are many of us are still have to go through this unfortunate situation but I am grateful for having such a good landlord. More than my own race.

Systemic racism and discrimination affecting housing is also a huge issue in Canada

Singapore is not what it seems. There are a lot of lies and injustices and people are suffering.

I am Indian. I feel it is sad and unfortunate. But what it also means is work hard, educate yourself well and with money one can decide to stay back and buy property or leave for better prospects elsewhere.

I hate saying this: I'm tamil and I'm a house owner. I was ripped off by another tamil person by renting them my home. They destroyed my clothes washer, dishwasher, stove, hood range, etc. they destroyed our mini garden and the house looks old. People around bay area in cali don't usually rent it to south indians because they destroy the rent house and it becomes smelly as hell. I feel sorry for the chinese and tamil house owners in singapore. I mean I just hate saying this, but I wish people in my community honestly improve their lifestyle then fight against racism if it isn't fair against everyone of them. Instead it only reflects on the good people within my community. After this experience, I won't rent my house to another tamil person unless I know that person and that family very well.

If they can cook the type of curry like they make in India, they're most welcome to stay under 1 condition... .. . . . They must cook extra, for me!

This is not a problem in Singapore alone; Malaysia also have the same damn issue

I visited Singapore in 2017 and thought that this is the kinda place I wanna work in cause it felt like home with familiar faces around. Now when my company gave me an opportunity to work there, I have been going through lot of forums and had to pass out on that opportunity as this kind of discrimination is rampant in SIngapore.

Well, statistics. If you have rented to two different indian families, and both times the rental unit came back dirty, damaged and with undisclosed issues; whereas after renting to multiple of other races, without issues... You can't blame the owner being reluctant at renting to specific races. Of course this was years ago, maybe the mindset has changes, but seriously if the next time it happens again...

As an Indian I can tell you this is true

Finally, someone spoke the truth, I still remember when one Indian Singapore family told me this before as get rejected to buy a house because they will cook curry and that smell cause uncomfortable for residents over there🤷🏻‍♀️

Nowadays not only Indian facing this problem. As a malaysian chinese who in Singapore also facing the same problem. During this pandemic a lot of malaysians who used to travel in out from Jb to Singapore. But now have to stay in Singapore. You can see people posting any room on facebook. I saw one post can get more than 70 comments. They tried to marked up the rental and set a lot of weird rules. Some of Hdb room is more expensive than a condo room.

It is common. I messaged a housing agent saying I wanted to sell my unit. He then asked for my name. When I told him he stopped communicating. It is obvious that when we have leaders who say that Indians cannot be PM, then this kind of behaviour is only to be expected because these people know the authorities won't give a damn

I've been to singapore back in 2009. As an indian, from what i observed, the "racism" is two way. Indians and chinese get along well when it comes to daily business, but they keep each other in boundaries(not renting to each other, indian firms preferring their own kind etc,). Both these groups blatantly discriminate the local malay population in all possible ways though.

Meanwhile CNA and Straits Times... "There is no racism in Singapore!!!" "On the top news tonight, let show how backwards Malaysia and Indonesia is and the other news, 10 reason why PAP is the best government in Singapore and why CECA is so important to Singapore economy..."

Even in Malaysia. The first thing the agent/owner will ask is your race/nationality. If you are not local, chances are, they will tell you unit are rented out but you can still see the ad for months and being updated.. Or they wont reply to your message again.

As an Indian, I visited Singapore as a tourist. Experienced blunt racism. When I visited US, I was surprised how I was welcomed. This is not to say that racism does not exist in US. I would chose US over Singapore anyday even after considering the long distance or time difference.

Local Asian to foreign Asian - "You can't stay here. You're not allowed here." Foreign Asian - "Really ?" Local A. - 'IT IS WHAT IT IS." Foreign Asian - "Understandable. Have a good day." * Local asian goes to some Western country * Western - "You can't stay here. You aren't allowed here." Local Asian - * Surprised Pikachu face *

Singapore has built Race quota into every part of life ( School, University, Hdb , Civil servants , Parliament, Visa , Citizenship etc) … every IC has a race tag in it to differentiate each person …this artificially gives privilege to the Chinese Race and deprives minorities of feeling equal in their own country … Different yard sticks gets subconsciously created for each race…Unfortunately for a small country like Singapore, they keep adding 25k new citizens every year which only worsens this trend… the only way for Singapore to go past these Racism is to scrap Race tag altogether from IC and treat each local as equal …

I’m not racist… but.. I don’t like Chinese neighbours/tenants cuz they burn a lot of offerings that causes me to cough a lot and the air around me to be unhealthy. They also leave a lot of rubbish around after the burnings and causes the corridors walls to turn dark, covered in thick layers of dust/ash. See? This is racism. It’s not an opinion, it’s not culture that made this happen. It is just racism. Saying you’re not racist then stating something borderline racist is still racist.

Not only Chinese but Malay and Indian landlords also practice rental discrimination. Many Indian tenants used to cheat on rent payments from the past till now which is not mentioned.

Vice Asia producing better content than mainstream Vice News these days .

This is unfortunately not only in Singapore but most parts of the world. In Spain it's the exact same thing especially against people of colour.

Curry small bad. Ferment cabbage kimchi, fish sauce, dried fish, belacan all good.

I’m currently facing this problem. I have reached out to almost 30 different agents and every single agent replied back tat landlord said no Indians. It’s very difficult to find a place being Indian race. Wish gov look into this issue.

OH MY GOD YES. Like they ask you for your ethnicity and race when you apply for property.

When my late mother suffered a stroke in 2013, I helped her to rent out her flat. I rented out to Malaysian, PRC & Indian. As long as the flat was not damaged & rent was paid, I was ok with all races. When I grow old, there is a possibility I will rent out my room. I will still do the same. I want to add, we get discriminated all the time, from being not tall enough, not smart enough, not rich enough, not quick enough, not witty enough & etc.

My Indian landlord during my time in college also refused to rent out to Indian tenants. The reason was that he had several bad experiences with Indian tenants delinquent on rent payment. He had evicted an Indian tenant for not paying rent for 2 months just before I moved in. He asked my help to find Chinese tenants.

In Malaysia too 🇲🇾 , the moment the real estate agent asks, May I know you are what race? Upon hearing im Malaysian Indian the agent takes an hour to call me back to inform me that the unit was already taken up...dude seriously!

So common, the worst thing is our government pride ourselves in being a "multicultural, tolerant society", "melting pot". Also, it's so insidious the kind of language these landlords use. It is evident how racist people can be in this country.

It is everywhere not just Singapore... There are many stereotypes formed across many different group not just limited to race such as: > Families with young children - No because the skids will draw on the walls > Students - No because they will make huge ruckus and party that disturbs neighbors > China people - No because they don't clean and have very bad habits which the landlord or other tenants cannot stand > Gender - Because the whole house is women, thus limited to only female tenants or vice versa if the whole house is male tenants 101 reasons so that is just to name a few....

So true! We should have a platform to report these cases

Hi Vice Asia you may want to interview Singapore real estate agents and landlords to get their perspective on why this is even happening.

Overwhelming responses. In conclusion, racism/discrimination is everywhere in the world. It's interesting to look at us human beings. How we consider our human races differently.

I am sure there is racism everywhere. I can only speak for myself and my sisters, of course. Together, we owned several properties that we rent out over the past three decades - and we have always rent out regardless of race (yes, we have rented out to "brown" peoples too). As far as I am concerned, you can be purple for all I care, as long as you pay your rent on time, and take care of my property. In all these years, my experience has shown that there are bad and good tenants of all races - but the good far outweighs the bad. People are generally decent. It is a two-way street.

My friend rented his apmt to a specific race family from that race country of origin. At the end of the tenancy period, his apmt was in such a bad state with broken furniture and also neighbours complaining. The smell of curry was so bad that he had to repaint the whole apmt because washing the walls did not remove the smell. He spent quite a huge sum of money to clean up the apmt and get new furniture. And there were other problems as well. He told me he will not rent to that racial group ever again. He might just be unlucky for getting a bad tenant from that racial group but i don't blame him for having that mindset. Btw, my friend's ethnicity is partly from that racial group.

I'm brown and migrated to Australia never had a racist comment or face racism in 10 years, in my opinions asian countries are way more racist than western countries

in.indonesia, renting racism based on tenant's religion.

Modern country but backward in thinking...that's Singapore...in this case

Let be honest, I have met most indian who even refused to lease their room and unit out to indian too. Why? Perhaps they should ask themselves why. One indian family told me why she refused to lease to indian, she say they drink a lot and they can’t handle drunken tenant, she also say they smell, loud and most time unreasonable. She even told me to read the news from indian how many rape cases in india. She say she doesn’t want to have unnecessarily headaches. I have met indian tenant who are very very arrogant too. Especially the white collars indian. They are exactly what the indian landlord described, they are really very difficult people to deal with. I can understand why, I wouldn’t blamed her and anyone from renting to them. Singapore is not the only isolated country, most big city like Tokyo, New York, London, in China, Australia, Malaysia, even in india, you will face such issue and discrimination. It will take time but you will eventually find one. I did too when I was working in Japan, hongkong, china and I look Asian.

Singapore from the 80s, 90s, there were many foreigners especially South East Asians working here & converting to citizens, without really much issues. After somewhere around 2005, especially 2010 onwards, these so called "Discrimination" cases started to increase, one need to really need to trace back, investigate & ask why.

I wished this video ended off which some next steps on what we can do to make things better. What do we do when we witness an act of racism? How can we call out this behavior? Are there governing bodies who are actively advocating racial harmony that we need to pay more attention to? Do we want to call out our education system on shedding more guidance in our younger generation to avoid those hurtful comments inflicted? What can we do better as an individual? There are new laws being proposed by the Singapore government to manage racism better through I guess what they deemed as a softer approach, but we as people need to recognize the pain that we inflict onto others in our mindless comments. We need to call out racism when we see it, be mindful of how our actions can affect others and just be better!

Most of the landlords are fine. The issue I have always found is the agent. When I asked to speak to owner, they disagreed that they ever said "No Indians" However agents are the worst.

4:31 "...No Frying. No cooking, Instant Noodles Only". I'm going to have an intense interview with the agent if there's a kitchen in that unit.

as a chinese vegan, i tried renting from (the only vegetarian, unfortunately, no vegan landlords) who happen to be indian only, and always rejected, often wont even sms text me back after i divulged my race. it was one day explained to me by an indian hindu trying to help me understand it wasnt racism, but that me being a non hindu vegan might be 'unholy' to the lacto-vegetarian hindus, since it seems, they are the only holy ones who exist. i m sure glad that got cleared up.

Thanks Vice for making this video. I’ve experienced this and it’s very rampant and someone saying it doesn’t exist is trying to cover up. It’s so difficult to get an apartment for an Indian here…….

The problem lies with stereotyping. People tend to judge based on few of the same race. You can rent to someone of different race and are probably worse as tenants.

Racism happens everywhere. In Singapore, in USA, in Australia, in India etc etc... As long as there is a majority and there are minorities. Sadly the minorities always gets the short end of the straw. As a member of the majority race here in Singapore, I enjoy a level of privilege, but when I go to places like the USA and Australia, I becomes a minority and experienced racism on different levels. Don't know what the solution is, I guess we just need to be aware that racism exist and to highlight that it's a problem and hope that, people will become more sensitive and empathetic of others difference, be it race, sexuality or beliefs.

I am Singaporean Malay and I don't discriminate on who my renters are. I only care that you're a considerate and clean person.

As an estate agent I've rented my own properties and those of my clients. One thing I learnt is all nationalities have their bad apples and landlords should be more careful of a property co-shared by a few single tenants as they usually won't have the incentive to keep your house clean by themselves. That said; Singapore suffers from Chinese privilege which is perpetuated by the ruling party from the deputy prime minister who said that "Singapore is not ready for an Indian prime minister" to MPs who say things like "I drove to Little India and couldn't see anything because it was so dark".

Well the color racism also happens in North India. I was south indian girl studied in north Indian schools, went through horrible racism from classmates and Teachers

And yet, someone said Singapore has no racism lol

You know what? Shame on those people. I had a similar experience, but sometimes when you are hurt and wronged, it changes you in a dark way. I've learned to throw money at the problem. It was such a hurtful experience to me as a child being a foreigner everywhere I go. I am a mixed third culture child who grew up all over the world. But I was fortunate enough that I just became my landlord wherever in the world I lived and am living. But Japan was the worst. They really judge their own for being mixed.

Yea... And then there's LHL saying that there's no "Chinese privilege" in Singapore.

problems like this also occur in Malaysia too. im very sorry if anyone been through this, but there are people who accept all races

My friend did his internship in Singapore once. And the Manager there had this predisposition that its a waste of his time dealing with a malay. My friend was told off and told to speak to the Manager's assistant instead.

I rented out my property to an Indian before. Within first few days he demanded a professional cleaner to remove a mark on the bathtub and complained that the key to open the lock wasn’t smooth enough to his liking. I had a look and cleaned the mark with a rub of my finger and the lock was fine. After six months, they moved out. I had to replace the stove rangehood as the curry smell was permanently stuck. Never again

Indians discriminate Indians in India. And when they travel to Singapore Indians are being discriminated. We receive what we give.

I find this funny being an Indian-American. Here most Indians live in super nice wealthy suburban neighborhoods with mostly whites. My family is in real estate and we dont know anyone or ever faced any kind of racism towards Indians. In fact, most people would prefer to have Indians since most are well-mannered and polite. Asians are truly racist against their own kind. Truly sad.

I rented my apartment to an Indian family for a couple of years. Then his wife & children went back to India. He asked me permission to allow his male relative from India to stay with him. I agreed. After 7~8 years of rental he allow a male to stay in the apartment without permission from me. I believe he is also collecting rent from this male. This subletting is illegal. When I took back my apartment after 10 years it was in a mess that even a beggar might not want to stay. Luckily the deposit was enough to pay for all the damages cause to my apartment. What would you think if another Indian wants to rent your apartment with the bad experience like this?

People who rent their place may consider qualities such as 1) honesty, 2) good and open communication, 3) respect, 4) organised 5) stable income 6) lifestyle. In a case where Singaporean Chinese rejects other Chinese from other regions who live a different lifestyle/pay lesser; they are making a choice. While rejecting someone of a different race who may lack the quality of a good tenant/have a different lifestyle/pay lesser rent would be discrimination. People tagging someone's choice as racism is the problem here.

is not just singapore.. any where in the world... discrimination exists... even in india.. *indians blatantly discriminate indians*

As a malaysian chinese, I find this highly ironic as in Malaysia, we minority chinese are fighting for racial equality whereas in Singapore, chinese themselves are discriminating minority races. This is sad

I'm a vietnamese currently living in Singapore with my family. Whenever we move to new place, agent always ask if we cook a lot. The first time I answered yes, we got rejected.

Rental racism is very prevalent in NZ, especially for people from the Indian subcontinent. The notion of Indians cooking curry that seeps in the wall is so true, every Indian tenant here has experienced it and with the rest of the stigma.

What are we talking?? In India itself ... there is so much discrimination against single women, bachelor men, lgbtq community , non vegetarians . Its hard to get a house on rent

It happens in Japan too. I have seen many people going through all the process for renting only to get rejected by the landlord cause he doesn't like Foreigners

1. There’s a quota for the % of same races living in a residential block. 2. People might have preferences for renting to different race to themself, not necessarily race discrimination. 3. I like my 1st Malay family neighbour. 4. My 2nd Chineses neighbour dictate conditions to me even before they move in. OMG! I AM Chinese myself. 4. Myanmar friends are staying at my place now (legally). I have no problem with it. I find them nice to be with. 5. It’s inevitably most Chinese find the oil Indian apply on their body is just difficult to get use to it. It’s not racism.

We used to rent out to Indian expat family and they were wonderful! Very nice ppl.

I'm Singaporean and my mom is Teowchew / Peranakan. We have rented out our HDB flat initially to three Thai students who kept the flat flawlessly and then for the past four years to an Indian family who have absolutely trashed our flat. And talking to other Singaporeans who have rented out their flats this is the same experience and the same for people from China. You can cry racism but if so many landlords have the same disappointing experiences then it's just in the landlords' interest to protect their assets. I'm of Chinese descent but would not rent out to PRCs and my wife is Indian and we wouldn't rent out to Indians again.

Why are people bringing up the caste system???maybe of the Indians in Singapore are Indian by ethnicity only not nationality.Why are they being brought into an issue that has nothing to do with them

Same is the case in Malaysia too. I had first hand experience from Singapore, so it was easy to understand and not a surprise though I didn’t expect it in Malaysia. Only 50% or even less houses on market are available to Indians. It is racism.

I'm chinese and I'm okay with Indians or any other races.. I would say that once "some" foreigners achieved getting a permanent residence status , they tend to be arrogant and not respectful towards us as Singaporeans. For example like I'm trying to hold the lift door for someone they will not give a simple gesture like "Thank you" I love my indians neighbours cooking curry everyday too when you can smell the aroma the moment you wake up.

It happens in Malaysia too. Honestly, it's not only rental. Discrimination occurs across the board, for example, in education, sports, etc. I wouldn't have received the same opportunities and be where I am today if I hadn't left the region.

I find this really ironic , the minorities in India especially from the northeast are facing the same racism from mainland India too. Once I tried to get a place in Delhi I was rejected , the owner simply said the food that we eat have foul-smelling.

Have a problem with curry but no issues eating bats 😂😂😂

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