Discrimination in the housing market occurs throughout the country and is not only a problem in the big cities, according to research by discrimination agency Art.1 / Radar. Municipalities will therefore have more powers to tackle discrimination, says outgoing minister Ollongren (D66).
The national survey shows that prospective tenants with a Polish or Moroccan-sounding surname are less likely to be invited for a viewing than persons with a Dutch-sounding name. More than a third of estate agents agree to a landlord’s request to exclude certain tenants.
Mysterycalls
For the study, advertisements were responded to 3,000 times with different surnames, with other personal characteristics being more or less the same. 105 mystery calls were also conducted at brokers. Three years ago, discrimination was similarly demonstrated by The Green Amsterdammer.
In the future, municipalities will be able to set up permits for landlords, so announces Ollongren. Landlords who demonstrably discriminate could then have their permit taken away. Utrecht and Rotterdam are already testing such a system, Ollongren is taking the results into account when establishing national rules.
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