Singapore’s Real Estate Bans Indians

Are you an Indian and looking for a house on rent in Singapore? It is highly possible that you will be disappointed as most of the Singaporean house owners are unwilling to rent their houses to Indians and people from mainland China. According to local media reports, the moment house owners realize that the tenant is an Indian or PRCs they say sorry and close the door.

Shopsandhomes found that a recent count states that there were more than 160 housing advertisements on the website PropertyGuru that clearly showed that the house owners did not wish to rent to Indians and/or mainland Chinese. Many of the online rental listings include the words: “no Indians, no PRCs [People’s Republic of China]”, sometimes even followed by the word “sorry”. The issue appears more common with less expensive properties and on sites where content is posted directly by users, such as Gumtree.

Fearing devaluation of their property most house owners, mostly the old timers state following reasons for not renting their houses to Indians and/or mainland Chinese:

• They claim that the Indians use lots of spices and oil in their cooking and the smell can be uncomfortable for the neighbors. They also say that such type of cooking supposedly leaves permanent smells in the house.

• Another reason they give is that Indians don’t keep the house clean and thus allow dust and oil collects over the months.

• They also complain that many of the tenants sublet their house or allow their friends and relative to stay with them in the same house.

Singapore is one of the richest and ethnically diverse countries in the world with foreigners making up around a third of Singapore’s work force ‘Private spheres’ consisting of 74% Chinese, 13% Malay, and 9% Indian and 3% from other ethnic groups. However, as 90% of Singaporean households own their homes, a significant portion of renters are foreigners.

You must be thinking that what does the law says? Well, as per article 12 of Singapore’s constitution following points hold true:

(1) All persons are equal before the law and entitled to the equal protection of the law.

(2) Except as expressly authorized by this Constitution, there shall be no discrimination against citizens of Singapore on the ground only of religion, race, descent or place of birth in any law or in the appointment to any office or employment under a public authority or in the administration of any law relating to the acquisition, holding or disposition of property or the establishing or carrying on of any trade, business, profession, vocation or employment.

Singapore’s government places a strong emphasis on racial harmony. Even the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) which is a government body that regulates the real estate agency industry, provides guidelines stating that real estate agents should “advise their clients against placing advertisements that are discriminatory, offensive or stereotyped in nature against any particular race, religion or group in society”.