DISCRIMINATION IN SINGAPORE'S RENTAL HOUSING MARKET

Abstract

Multiculturalism is the cornerstone of Singapore’s society and economy. Any form of discrimination should be addressed with urgency and importance, to protect Singapore’s doctrine of racial and cultural equality. In Singapore, the focus of policy and research has largely been on the residential housing market, and not the rental housing market. However, there has been anecdotal accounts and informal research indicating the presence of discrimination in Singapore’s rental housing market. Additionally, the presence of discrimination in overseas rental housing markets is well documented by numerous studies. This paper therefore aims to bridge the research gap, by studying Singapore’s rental housing market through an email audit study. This paper seeks to investigate if there is a presence of discrimination in Singapore’s rental market, and if so what type the discrimination is and what the source of the discrimination is. The results of the email audit and empirical analysis indicates that there is racial discrimination against Indian tenants in Singapore’s rental market. The source of this discrimination is found to be statistical discrimination, whereby Indian tenants are discriminated against because they are perceived to be of poorer financial standing. However, this perception stems from an entrenched social hierarchy, rather than actual social indicators. Policies should therefore focus on changing this perception.