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How prevalent is discrimination in the property rental market?

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How prevalent is discrimination in the property rental market?

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Real estate agents are divided over the prevalence of discrimination within the rental industry, but they agree that in a seller’s market, landlords have the final say.

Most real estate professionals pointed to “cultural differences” between Maltese and some third-country nationals as one of the reasons for discrimination, saying that while they may not agree with a landlord’s preferences, they must comply with their landlord’s requests.

While one real estate agent insists his company “won’t work with racists,” most industry professionals Times of Malta Those interviewed said that if landlords insisted on not renting a house to people of a certain nationality, they would tell the client that the house would no longer be available for rent.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Indian community said South Asians were “often” rejected when applying for rental housing, saying: “We don’t want to rent to Indians.”

Housing discrimination made headlines last week when Alliance Real Estate blamed a warning on one of its real estate ads “No Pakistanis, Indians, Arabs and Filipinos” (sic) Regarding an internal memo that was released in error.

A spokesman for the company said it was “not uncommon for landlords to impose restrictions on the types of tenants that can occupy their properties” and that the company was obliged to comply with such restrictions.

But Neil Falzon, director of human rights NGO Aditus, said the law was “clear” that it was illegal to restrict access to housing based on nationality.

An industry insider revealed Times of Malta Such discrimination is widespread but is “more common among landlords who own multiple properties and rely on those properties for income”.

“They first ask nationality, then whether there are children and pets. They tell us (their requirements) and what we can do? The demand is greater than the supply, so landlords can be picky,” the source said.

“It’s a bit of a minefield… On the one hand it’s wrong, but that’s the business we’re in — and it’s going pretty well at the moment.”

But Dhalia chief executive Alan Grima called Alliance’s case an “isolated” incident and said landlords subject to such restrictions were a small fraction of the total.

Steve Mercieca, founder of QuickLets and Zanzi Homes, said that while he was “shocked” at the level of discrimination when he first entered the industry, it was “not as prevalent now as it once was”.

However, he said the company had “no control over the behaviour of landlords … people in Malta believe that certain nationalities have lower incomes and bring in more tenants than planned”.

Kevin Buttigieg, chairman of RE/MAX, agreed, noting that it’s not uncommon to rent an apartment to someone who is a third-country national and end up with three or four people sharing the apartment.

He pointed to “cultural differences” such as the smell of certain cuisines as reasons landlords reject tenants of certain nationalities, saying attitudes towards such differences were “unfortunate, but that’s how it is”.

While Buttigieg would not say how widespread discrimination is in the industry, saying it’s “hard to tell” and depends on the region, he said there’s nothing real estate agents can do.

“At the end of the day, landlords are landlords and they can do whatever they want; it’s a difficult situation.”

When asked about the legality of landlords discriminating when renting out properties, Buttigieg said: “In my opinion, it’s illegal, but we ourselves (as rental agents) would not be breaking the law.”

‘Landlords often turn away Indians’

A spokesman for the Malta Malayali Association said landlords “often refuse to rent to Indians simply because of where we are from”.

He said the owners would not make any excuses, adding that it was also common to see advertisements that explicitly excluded Indians.

“We were not surprised when we saw the league’s ads banning Indians, Pakistanis and others,” the spokesman said.

Landlords have so many choices that within a few hours they have different tenants to choose from… (property) is in short supply

Referring to concerns that South Asian cooking may leave strong odors, he said landlords tend to charge South Asian tenants higher prices as a result.

“Indians end up paying a lot for housing… Many times, we spend half or even more of our salary on housing.”

‘White lies’

Buttigieg said that when faced with strict landlords, he would tell potential tenants “white lies and say the house is unrentable” while suggesting taking them somewhere else to live.

Grima said that while Dalia would still contact landlords about such tenants and provide references to help with applications when possible, if the landlord insisted, the potential tenant would be told the property was “unavailable”.

“Landlords have so many choices that within a few hours they have different tenants to choose from … (properties) are undersupplied.”

He said such incidents were rare, but discrimination was not limited to third-country nationals and similar requests had been made to European tenants in the past. Grima said such requests had become less common over time, pointing to changes in rental laws that limited the number of tenants per property as reassuring for landlords.

Mercieca, meanwhile, said his company would “try to change their minds” if a landlord asked to exclude potential tenants based on race or nationality — but if the landlord didn’t, his company would deny them business.

“We blacklist racists because they are difficult to deal with. We will not work with racists,” he said.

‘Laws need radical reform’

Messika cited the company’s experience in Cyprus, Spain and Portugal, and said that in other countries rental properties were managed by third parties, meaning landlords rarely met tenants.

“It’s always better when properties are managed; they’re more organised and it means tenants don’t have to deal with grumpy landlords… because tenants never meet landlords,” he called on Malta to adopt this approach.

Buttigieg believes rental laws need “significant reform” and advocates for stronger protections for both tenants and landlords.

“I would go further and say that some kind of tribunal should be set up to make prompt decisions on disputes between landlords and tenants,” he said.

“It is really necessary because this is a serious matter; landlords have invested money in properties and need protection; at the same time, tenants pay high rents for properties and need protection. I believe this will solve a lot of problems.”

When asked what steps were being taken to address housing discrimination, a spokesperson for the Department of Housing pointed to the publication of an “anti-discrimination information sheet” as one measure the department had taken to address the issue.

The National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE) said it planned to repeat a study on housing discrimination, which was last carried out in 2012 and found “numerous examples of direct and indirect housing discrimination in Malta”.

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