French anti-racism group says half of home rental agencies bow to owners' prejudices

Monday is International Day for the Elimination of Racism. To mark the date, the French action group SOS Racisme tested 136 home rental agencies and discovered that nearly half of them continue to accept property owners' demands for a discriminatory policy in the allocation of rental contracts.

REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

International Day for the Elimination of Racism is marked on 21 March, in memory of the 69 people killed by South African police on this day in 1960 at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville against the apartheid government.

The SOS Racisme test was carried out using volunteers who contacted the housing agencies, pretending to have properties to rent, and insisting on certain racial requirements.

The findings are stark. Nearly half (48.5 percent) of the agencies contacted agreed to enforce the racial requirements of the owners.

According to the SOS Racisme report, one agency in four agreed to select potential renters directly on the basis of racial dicrimination demanded by the owners.

The results are a slight improvement on a similar test carried out three years ago, when 51 percent of agencies agreed to enforce a discriminatory policy.

Indirect selection of 'suitable' candidates

Another quarter of the agencies tested accepted an indirect form of discrimination, agreeing to retain only those applications from racial groups considered as "suitable" by the property owners.

For the 136 agencies tested, according to SOS Racisme, people of north African or Black origins ran an almost 50 percent chance of being the victims of racial discrimination. 

Seventy of the agencies tested refused any concession on racial grounds, reminding their potential clients that such discrimination is strictly prohibited by French law.

The president of the French National Federation of Estate Agents, Jean-Marc Torrollion, admits that progress remains to be made by members of his profession.

"Fifty-one percent no longer discriminate, and that's encouraging," he says.

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"Obvioulsy, the only response to these results is anger. But I think we have made a small amount of progress and that should be recognised."

There are 6,200 estate agents in France, employing a total of 100,000 people.

"It's taking time to change attitudes, but I'm sure we're heading in the right direction," says Torrollion.

Racial discrimination in the award of a rental contract is a crime punishable by three years imprisonment and a 45,000 euro fine.

Weekend marches across France

Thousands of people in several French cities marched on Saturday to protest racism and police brutality.

In Paris, protesters paraded through the city centre behind a banner condemning "state crimes". Other demonstrators carried "Black Lives Matter" banners.

Interior ministry figures put the turnout out at 2,100, but the march organisers estimated 8,000-10,000.

Other protests took place in Bordeaux and Toulouse in the southwest, and Lyon in the southeast.