A simple hunt for a place to rent turned into a sour brush with unprovoked bigotry, according to a man who related his recent experience on Facebook.
According to the man named Bhai (a successful interior decor entrepreneur), he had enquired about an old bungalow along East Coast Road, which was a two-minute drive away from where he lived, which he wanted to use for storage and sublet some rooms to offset rental costs. The property agent he contacted promptly responded to his text and told him the owners had no issue with his request and arranged a meeting the same day. Since it was pretty close, Bhai simple garbed himself in a casual tee and shorts and drove on down.
The agent was seen alighting at the house from a private-hire vehicle (presumably a Grab or Uber car). He then waved at Bhai’s car and unlocked the gate to let him park.
Upon exiting the car, the smile the agent had on faded and the initial welcoming presence apparently turned nasty, claims Bhai.
The agent didn’t bother to hide his surprise, having thought he was Chinese. He let out “You are Mr Bhai ah? You are not Chinese?”. Strike one.
He then asked what exactly he wanted to store in the house (strike two), and did not hesitate to tell Mr Bhai immediately that if he does anything illegal, he and the owners would have “no problems calling the police on him”. Strike three.
And this was all even before they even had the chance to even enter the bungalow. Sparing no mercy, Bhai put his face three inches from his, muttering in a soft but solid tone “F**k you, you piece of shit, you are very lucky you are an old man,” before getting back into his car and driving off.
But of course, outright racial profiling is no stranger to the Singapore’s property industry — so much so that when popular property search engine 99.co launched an “All-Races-Welcome” option last year, it was big news. Sad, but true.
Read Bhai’s whole encounter below:
