Almost half of French real estate agents enable racism: study

Almost half of real estate agencies in France accept or enable racial discrimination in access to housing, according to a survey published Sunday.

The anti-discrimination group "SOS Racisme" contacted 198 real estate agencies in 2025, posing as landlords and requesting "European" tenants as a way to avoid "neighbourhood problems".

Of the 198 agencies, 48 (24.2 percent) agreed to select tenants on such a basis, while another 48 allowed or encouraged the prospective landlord to select them on a racial basis themselves, according to the report that was revealed by Le Parisien and seen by AFP.

That means that almost half encouraged or enabled racial prejudice, while 102 agencies (51.5 percent) refused to discriminate and explicitly opposed tenant selection based on racial criteria.

The survey "highlights a worrying persistence of discriminatory practices that are nevertheless prohibited under criminal law", SOS Racisme stated in a press release.

Equality Minister Aurore Berge, reacting to the results, told Le Parisien that "the SOS Racisme report shows there is still a long way to go" and reiterated that "discrimination is illegal".

Berge announced the introduction of mandatory discrimination training for all real estate agents. Training is currently only compulsory for professional license holders -- less than half of all agents.

She said a decree could be expected "in the coming weeks".

SOS Racisme conducted similar surveys in 2019 and 2022, and the latest findings show no improvement: in 2022, 48.5 percent of 136 agencies directly accepted (25 percent) or facilitated (23.5 percent) discriminatory requests.

In a letter addressed to lawmakers and seen by AFP, SOS Racisme president Dominique Sopo on Sunday called on deputies to "speak out loud and clear" against discrimination.