Kirsty Mckenzie
EXPATS are being discriminated against in the rental market and face more barriers to securing a lease than Spaniards, according to new research.
A report by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration sent applications of the same socio-economic, family and gender conditions to real estate agencies and found that foreigners were disadvantaged by most measures compared with people from Spain.
Expats are two times more likely to be offered short-term rental contracts, with the research finding that only 34,8% of Spaniards are asked to sign indefinite leases compared to 62.2% of foreigners.
Agents favoured Spanish renters by telling them but not expats about available homes at the first point of contact in 70% of cases. Meanwhile 64% of forgeign renters received this preferential treatment.
Agents also gave preferential treatment to Spanish people by only asking 19.9% for a guarantor when signing their lease. In contrast 32.3% of foreigners were asked to give details of a guarantor.
A shocking 72.5% of the real estate agencies contacted for the report admitted to explicit racism while 27.5% rejected the claims made by the study.
Nearly all agencies (82.8%) accepted that indirect and hidden forms of discrimination against foreigners existed in the property market.
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