It seems casual racism doesn’t get much more casual than in Hong Kong.
The Twitterverse burst into life last week when a man from New Delhi shared a text conversation with a Hong Kong property agent who nonchalantly explained that he couldn’t rent the apartment of his choice because the landlord didn’t want an Indian tenant.
Simran Singh Sethi was ready to whack down a cool HKD22,000 a month on a Kennedy Town apartment with a sea view, when a Centaline agent (identified only as Yvonne) relayed in a text that the 30-year-old wasn’t exactly the landlord’s cup of tea.
What’s perhaps even more insulting is the fact that neither Yvonne or the landlord had ever met Singh in person, so the agent simply assumed he was Indian and clearly passed on this essential piece of info to her client.
Here’s the original Tweet:
Centaline’s Managing Director Chan Wing-kit acknowledged in a statement to the SCMP that refusing a tenant on the grounds of race is illegal and “unacceptable”.
A Centaline spokeswoman said the legal team is looking into the matter, while Singh is considering whether or not to lodge a formal complaint with the Equal Opportunities Commission.
