Ethnic discrimination against landlords in the rental housing market

Shahar Sansani

International Journal of Housing Policy, 2025, vol. 25, issue 2, 234-256

Abstract: In this paper, we examine ethnic discrimination against landlords by analysing whether landlords who are Palestinian citizens of Israel (PCI) (minority) receive fewer inquiries than Jewish (non-minority) landlords for available apartments for rent. Two hundred and forty eight fictitious advertisements for apartments for rent were advertised, half with names signalling Jewish individuals and half with names signalling individuals who are PCI. Moreover, the amount of information regarding the apartments was varied, as half of the advertisements included pictures and a longer description of the apartments, decreasing the uncertainty regarding potential landlords. Finally, through contact-sharing smartphone applications, we examine the ethnicity of the individuals calling each type of advertisement. The main finding is that Jewish landlords receive 36 percent more inquiries overall than landlords who are PCI, from 29 percent more unique phone numbers than landlords who are PCI. This finding holds for both high-information and low-information listings. In addition, we find that the more left-leaning a city is politically, the smaller the difference in inquiries between the two types of landlords.

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/19491247.2023.2232204

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