Real Estate Agents/Landlords and Racism?

[redsheesha]

Hello all. It's been hard enough to be away from OH while she's in Auckland and I'm in the States. She was in love with Auckland and had nothing but great things to say about the people she's met and the food/prices/etc UNTIL she started looking for flats.

She's had no problem when looking for flat shares, and she's already been offered a place for us in a nice cedar house. The problem crops up only when she deals with real estate agents or landlords renting out an entire flat. She is Filipino, and she's seen over a dozen flats and maybe 5 different real estate agencies. Every time she says she feels like she's being dismissed, and also that she's being treated differently than the white folks she's viewing a flat with.

One landlord blatantly told the girls who were moving out he didn't want to rent to Asians. We have close friends who are a mixed nationality couple and they didn't have problems securing their own flat as long as both of them went along. They're telling her it's better if we go looking for places when I'm there as I'm "white."

I guess I'm looking for anyone else's thoughts on the matter or stories or suggestions. Is this typical? Is the idealogy behind this that Asian tenants tend to cause problems for landlords and therefore they're less likely to rent to them? She's found regular Kiwis to be open and friendly toward her, so the landlord/real estate agent thing is hitting her out of left field.

Now she's questioning whether we made the right decision to move.

[JandM]

So sorry to hear about this trouble your wife is having - it must be really upsetting for you both.

I can't begin to guess their reasoning.

[redsheesha]

So sorry to hear about this trouble your wife is having - it must be really upsetting for you both.

I can't begin to guess their reasoning.

Thanks, JandM. The girls at the flat we really wanted told their neighbors (friends of ours) what the letting agent said, they were just as appalled as we all were.

We're not people who easily pin problems on racism, but in this case, the agent himself SAID he didn't want to let to Asians. She's felt the cold shoulder and seen different treatment being meted out right in her face. I'm wondering if anyone on here has a specific agent recommendation for Auckland? I'm sure it's not EVERY agency out there.

[Sun777]

Sad to hear about such experience, I found agents to be quite friendly especially Barfoot & Thompson, seems they have largest presence & I went by word of mouth (as I interacted with about 10 agents from different areas).

Though I didn't interact with 'Cockles & Bay' but one of my long distant cousin said they faced similar situation as your wife with them. Just don't let this occasional incident affect the move.

[dharder]

Totally unacceptable. To be honest, I'd complain to their managers, and if you don't get a satisfactory response, take it further. This probably means she'd have to keep quite accurate records of when what happened, and it may feel easier once you have secured a place to live, but personally, I would not let them off the hook that easily.

Sorry your OH had to experience this.

Good luck,

Daniela

[redsheesha]

Sad to hear about such experience, I found agents to be quite friendly especially Barfoot & Thompson, seems they have largest presence & I went by word of mouth (as I interacted with about 10 agents from different areas).

Though I didn't interact with 'Cockles & Bay' but one of my long distant cousin said they faced similar situation as your wife with them. Just don't let this occasional incident affect the move.

Thanks for that! You're the second to recommend Barfoot and Thompson, so we'll look them up. She was not happy with Ray White, either, for the record.

Totally unacceptable. To be honest, I'd complain to their managers, and if you don't get a satisfactory response, take it further. This probably means she'd have to keep quite accurate records of when what happened, and it may feel easier once you have secured a place to live, but personally, I would not let them off the hook that easily.

Sorry your OH had to experience this.

Good luck,

Daniela

Thanks, Daniela. She was so upset about it she wanted to go down there and confront the landlord by herself (not violently, just give him a piece of her mind). Twice she had to be talked out of it...once by me (I don't think she needs the added stress/high blood pressure) and once by the friends of the girls moving out of the flat, who said to just ignore him because he was a really bad landlord overall (the reason they were moving out).

One American friend called him just to see if he'd take her more seriously (she said she was American and new to NZ, gave a normal sounding name, etc), and he talked her ear off for a half hour and tried very hard to get her to come view the place. In the meanwhile, my OH's texts and emails went unanswered. She really, really wanted that flat, but we've moved on. Neither of us thought about finding out who his manager is, so we'll try to track him down. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Georgebulldog]

Just being a woman may not help, when we were buying a lot of the agents talked directly to my OH & not at me which annoyed the hell out of me

[Super_BQ]

I think the issue of 'selective' tenants, specifically 'no asians' has been talked about before on TV news say around 3 or 4 years ago.

The problem is that certain asian tenants (students, etc.) leave the flats in a mess. Kiwis not familiar with their style of cooking (ie - greasing up the kitchen) which leaves landlords to discriminate them between the regular white folk that may keep the flat in a more tidy manner.

All in all i'm not surprised.

[Kanga]

Eh? I think all students can be messy, very much doubt ethnicity has any part to play in it and if it was about "kitchen smells" then landlords should ban sausage cooking as I once cooked some sausages (was trying to give up vegetarianism) and the stench was so bad we had to scrub the whole kitchen and air the house.

[Familyofmonkeys]

Just being a woman may not help, when we were buying a lot of the agents talked directly to my OH & not at me which annoyed the hell out of me

I've has this experience too with rental agents (mainly the male ones), especially when we've looked around rental houses. I've always assumed because I don't work and my OH does, they seem to direct all coversation towards him and pretty much ignore me until it comes to signing the paperwork. Silly thing is, for the most part it has always been me who has the final say with acommodation since I'm the person in the family who is home the most.

As for the racism, is it a sad fact that there is a minority of people in society here who have a problem with Asian people. New Zealand has become very multicultural in recent years and some kiwi's are uncomfortable with this, and therefore do discriminate because of their own inability to interact with other peoples cultures. However, don't be put off because it really is a minority of people here that do this.