In a report published Monday, March 21, the association SOS Racisme denounces racial discrimination in real estate rentals. According to France Info, 48.5% of the 136 agencies involved in the study have adopted these illegal practices.
Candidates for a lease who are victims of this behavior are often from sub-Saharan Africa or the Maghreb. Carried out three years after their last investigation, this testing campaign consisted of members of SOS Racisme posing as owners of real estate with discriminatory requirements.
Agencies pinned twice in a row
The study found that one in four agencies left it up to landlords to weed out “so-called Arab or black profiles in order to avoid neighborhood problems”. A quarter of agencies self-eliminate based on the same criteria, reports Capital. However, half of the agencies surveyed say they do not sort candidates on this basis.
Three-quarters also recall that the law prohibits any form of discrimination. This is the case of Agencies Century 21, Stéphane Plaza and Orpi. SOS Racisme specifies in its report that some of the agencies pinned during its testing carried out in 2019 have been pinned again this year.
SOS Racisme therefore calls for the “strengthening of criminal sanctions in the event of discrimination”. She also wants the restoration of the disciplinary function of the National Council for Property Transactions and Management, abolished in 2018 by the Elan law. For the time being, real estate agents guilty of rental discrimination are liable to three years in prison and a fine of 45,000 euros.