Everyone can attend apartment viewings, but landlords still discriminate in decisions
Prospective tenants in the Dutch private rental market are now equally likely to be invited to view rental homes regardless of background, gender, or sexual orientation, but most rental agents still comply with landlords’ requests to exclude certain groups, such as tenants of non-Dutch origin, singles, or LGBTQ+ applicants, according to a government report released Tuesday. The Dutch government’s National Monitor of Housing Rental Discrimination found no evidence that prospective tenants are being denied invitations to view rental homes based on their background, gender, or sexual orientation.
The report demonstrates that many rental agents still comply with discriminatory requests from landlords. For the study, researchers posed as landlords during phone calls where they asked agents to exclude certain tenant groups.
A majority of rental agents agreed to carry out the exclusion, an increase from just over 37 percent in 2022. In the recent batch of mystery-call tests, 55 percent of agents recognized these requests as discriminatory.
Only about than 22 percent flatly refused to comply. That does demonstrate some progress compared to 2014, when just 14 percent refused such requests from landlords during a similar experiment.
Another area of improvement involved researchers using written correspondence to test whether housing candidate details, like common names in the Dutch language, affected the response rate. The study had researchers sending fictitious candidates with varied names and genders.
The report noted that “all profiles now have an equal chance of being invited,” a significant improvement compared with earlier editions. Previous research had shown that applicants with non-Dutch-sounding names were invited less frequently. The study, conducted by the Verwey-Jonker Instituut for the Ministry of Housing and Spatial Planning, marks the first time equal treatment has been observed at the viewing stage.
But the negative points are too severe to dial back national intervention, said caretaker Housing Minister Mona Keijzer on Tuesday. She said the findings still prove the need for continued government action.
The ministry plans to maintain annual monitoring, strengthen local and sector-specific enforcement, expand education for rental agents, and broaden the application of the Good Landlordship Act. A new social-media campaign on rental discrimination rules is also underway.
