Who Gets the Keys? Exploring Discrimination in Tenant Selection

Discrimination in the rental housing market is a persistent issue, yet the mechanisms underlying biased decision-making remain insufficiently explored. While correspondence studies have extensively documented ethnic discrimination, they often fail to capture the full decision-making process or control for supply-side factors such as landlord preferences. In this multifactorial survey experiment, we asked 723 real estate students to rate 2,169 tenant applications, manipulating both demand-side (origin signals, social status and pool competition ethnic mix) and supply-side (landlord preferences and property quality) factors. Our findings reveal that skin colour elicits stronger discrimination than name-based ethnic cues, and that high social status significantly moderates discrimination against minorities. Furthermore, landlord preferences play a crucial role in shaping real estate agents’ decisions, with discriminatory instructions amplifying biases. The study also highlights the role of competition effects, showing that discrimination is more pronounced when minority applicants compete against majority applicants. By shedding light on the interplay between applicant characteristics, market conditions, and decision-making processes, our study contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of rental market discrimination and suggests avenues for policy interventions.