Some many years ago, I got to know this French girl, M. And by now, I think we have established that the most common name probably begins with the letter M since I noticed that many of the people I mention in this blog are M. After all, the most common given name in the world is Muhammad and its variations.
Anyhow, when M first decided to move out of her first apartment and went in search of a nice new place at a property agent, she set her sights on one that drew her attention. However, she was later told that she couldn’t rent the place because the owner didn’t want to rent to French people. She was taken aback and decided to submit a formal complaint as that would be considered an act of racism in France and many parts of Europe.
When she told that to me, I could see why she thought of it that way. After all, declining service to someone by virtue of their race or nationality is a form of discrimination. And it isn’t that I haven’t ran into that myself. Being at my 8th apartment in my less than 8 years here, I’ve had my share of experience hunting for new places to stay. A couple of times, after submitting an application online for viewing, I was told that the apartments I chose could not be rented because the owners do not want to rent them to foreigners. I was flabbergasted but at the same time, had no choice but to accept it.
I told one of the agents, “If that’s the case, why don’t you just provide the filter on the site so I don’t have to waste time looking at those that I couldn’t rent.” And he very honestly told me that they know it is not politically correct to do that, so that filter is only available to staff at the agency.
Very well done.
I was more disturbed by the fact that I would be wasting time looking at apartments I’m not allowed to rent if I searched online myself than by the discrimination. But if you look at it another way, maybe this seems plausible. Apartments are owned by individuals. They are unlike public services like transport where cab drivers will get into trouble for refusing service to anyone. If I have a pen, I should have the right to refuse to lend it to people whom I think might damage it. So, why not housing? If I had once rented it to a certain group of people i.e. foreigners, and they’ve made a mess of my house when they left, then I have the onus to protect my property by not renting to them again. This then raises the issue on stereotype, which can be an entire entry in itself, so I shall not bring that in here.
What are your thoughts on that?
I feel that in the case of renting an apartment to others, the owner has the right to decide who or what kind of people they wish to rent to. It is very common in SG that some people do not wish to rent to people of certain race cos of their lifestyle e.g. religion, cooking style, etc. Since the property still belongs to the owners and everyone wish to keep their property in good condition, it is of course their right to state conditions before ‘lending’ their stuff, as you have rightly put in the example stated (lending books, pens etc). As such, I would think it is more of a stereotype (which btw, doesn’t exist for no good reason, lol) than a racism issue.
The only slightly more ‘acceptable’ part about choosing who to or not to lend your items to compared to choosing tenants, is that the former is based on personal experience and ‘proven track record’, while the latter is based on a stereotype. As such, perhaps the best way to look at this would be to state condition and have a personalised questionnaire or interview before agreeing to rent. E.g. basic condition: foreigner but able to converse in Japanese (I’m assuming the reason they dont rent to foreigners is fear of not being able to comms with them properly), then if met already, interview to debunk some worries based on stereotype. This way, they get higher chance of having their property rented, tenant is selected wisely, and there’s r/s and trust forged. No racism. TADAH!
#idealscenariobutweallknowtheworlddoesn’tworklikethat
Haha, yes I agree on the lending of stuff. And you’re right that communication is one issue home owners are concerned about. Another of which is that their idea of foreigners are Americans, who wear shoes into the house which can damage the wooden floorings. I’ve been to a home party at an American guy’s rented place, and the flooring was full of dirt, holes and scratches with all his guests wearing their shoes and heels in. Not sure if the owner did state that as a condition before renting it out. But truth is, some people just don’t abide by rules, including Japanese people. But there is a psychological safety in illogically being more accepting toward your people than someone foreign. Like how your fart stinks less than somebody else’s.
There are also probably many ways to resolve such issues but the hard truth is, people go into the rental business for money and not because they want to provide shelter. So, unfortunately, the most pragmatic way to receive such income is to do as little work as possible. After all, tons of people are looking to rent and there will always be someone else to take the room. Those having a hard time getting tenants most likely would have less issues with renting to foreigners.
Starting with a brief digression, I think that in my circle of friends, the most common letter at the beginning of names is J. I have very few M’s, come to think of it.
As for renting, I also agree that it is the landlord’s choice whether or not to rent to a specific person. There doesn’t have to be a good explanation, since it’s their private property. Even “I don’t like his face” can be valid. However, I also feel that the system should be fairer to prospective tenants, by stating requirements and restrictions clearly. This is so that time wastage can be minimized for the tenants, who I imagine will have a more urgent need to secure a rental place than a landlord would have to secure a tenant.
To address a point on lena’s comment too, perhaps the landlord did have a bad experience with a foreign tenant before. So once bitten, twice shy. I don’t think we can generalize and say that all landlords are choosing not to rent to foreigners based on stereotype alone. Even then, I would hope that landlords can be open-minded and not let a negative experience affect them so much. I do agree that having face-to-face interviews for both parties to assess each other would be a good move. If the landlord is really kiasi, have detailed terms and conditions worked into the contract, or ask for a higher security deposit. Perhaps the agent can act as a mediator or negotiator of some sort too?
Now that you mentioned, there indeed are a lot of names beginning with J. Mine is an example.
I agree that agents should make things easier for prospective tenants, but unfortunately, political correctness and convenience don’t always work hand-in-hand.
It’s true that face-to-face interviews can be a good option. But the truth is, if owners choose to have agents handle it for them, chance is, they don’t want to do any work at all. A friend of mine doesn’t hand her Tokyo apartment rental to agents to manage because she didn’t feel it’s worth the money to pay handling fees to these agents. That is why she did all the marketing, rent collection, etc. herself, and she could get to meet the tenants face-to-face (since it is important because she and her family lives in the same building). But she also owns an apartment in Fukuoka which she has handed to agents to handle since she is too far away to constantly manage it. So, owners are not necessarily always where the unit is, and they don’t always want to do any work. If I am paying someone to do the work and get me passive income already, why spend time on it right?