Research produced by the University of Sydney has suggested that discrimination in the rental sector is being exacerbated by the rise of rental tech.
The report, undertaken for AHURI, showed that rental screening programs could be negatively impacting those from non-English speaking backgrounds and low income backgrounds.
“The new, interesting angle is around the impact that we find from tech that is used to mediate access to housing,” said lead researcher Dr Sarah Maalsen.
“Basically, there is a rise in tenant screen platforms, where data is collected to evaluate your risk as a tenant. We know that, overseas, there has been a lot of concern because if you’re a racial minority or lower socio-economic class, your risk profile will be higher and it’ll make it harder to find a place.”
“These people are often the most vulnerable people who actually need the rental housing, so it can perpetuate discrimination and accentuate it. The tech has no room for human oversight so there’s no case-by-case basis.”
At a time when, in most of Australia, getting a rent is harder than it ever has been, the report found discrimination at all levels of the tenancy process.
“We looked at where the discrimination in the rental market is happening from all stages,” said Maalsen.
“From the very beginning of the cycle at the investor stage, when you’re looking for a property, through advertisements, applying for a lease during a tenancy and all the way through to actions around evictions.”
“What we found was that there is ample discrimination, but it varies. Discrimination happens along the lines that you might expect: class, race, gender and religion, and sometimes we find that single parents find it harder, as do younger males who are considered not as reliable tenants as a female. There’s all these interesting intersections between gender, age, race and income.
“It can happen in instances such as going into a share house, where often the discrimination is unconsciously or consciously made by the flatmates.”
“If you’re going through a leasing agent, we find that there are some common assumptions about who makes a good tenant: people from non-English speaking backgrounds or with non-English names are given less of a go through the system than those with English names, or they get told that properties are off the market.”
