99.co Boss Couldn’t Rent Apartment Because “Wife is Indian”

It is ironic that the CEO of a local property listing portal would be denied rental of an apartment – and because of something as archaic and backward as racism.

In a post on the 99.co blog, co-founder and CEO Darius Cheung detailed the ordeals he and his Indian wife Roshni had to go through in their attempts to rent a property for the family.

Last year, the couple decided to move to a place nearer to Roshni’s office, in preparation of the arrival of their child.

“I thought it was going to be a breeze when we first started our search. After all, it is a renters’ market with an oversupply of vacant apartments and I know the country and the process well, so I was confident that it would be easy – I was very wrong.”

While enquiring for a potential apartment, Cheung started to notice something very odd – the couple would often be met with agents that were eager to end the viewings quickly, sometimes without even discussing the offer.

After texting one of them afterwards to negotiate the price for rental, Cheung was met with a shocking “Sorry your wife is Indian, landlord won’t rent to you. Next time please indicate earlier, so we both don’t waste time”.

On a separate occasion, Cheung was met with the vague response of “Profile doesn’t match”. Pushing harder, he followed up with, “Is it because my wife is Indian?”

The response? “Yes, thanks for your understanding”.

Cheung claimed that over 20% of their 30 enquires were rejected upfront for something as inconsequential as his wife’s name. They ended up having to pay 15% above the market rate for a place that welcomed them.

Cheung said his wife was so affected that she even considered dropping her last name from their daughter’s IC because “it might just be easier for her in the future”.

He goes on to add that discrimination doesn’t only extend to those of Indian origin, but Chinese nationals as well. Reasons for this ranged from misconceptions such as lack of cleanliness, possibility of damaging the apartment, to the simple, yet horribly racist “I don’t like them”.

But at least there’s one good thing to come out of this entire saga.

Cheung ended off the post by rolling out a new feature on 99.co – the REGARDLESS-OF-RACE campaign. These “all-races-welcome” listings will be featured on 99.co’s homepage to prospective renters who wish to avoid going through what Cheung went through.

Top Image: bambooshoots.com.sg

Perhaps it is time to put “regardless of race, language, or religion” into practice instead of only believing in it once every year – on National Day.

This post was first published on goodyfeed.com