BBC Inside Out tonight

[fl0wer]

A film about letting agents, many who work to end racial discrimination will want to watch this.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/14/london-estate-agents-discriminate-black-people-bbc-investigation

[uncleglen]

I saw that piece and as far as I could see all the letting agents involved were Asian. The blatant hypocrisy on top of the discrimination!

[alice]

All they were doing is responding to what their client wanted it would have been more interesting to me if they did similar research where the client asked for, say, only female tenants or only tenants over 35

[uncleglen]

About 10 years ago we were trawling through the approved accommodation list of a certain university and there were many that specified female students only. Also, if you rent out a property you can specify 'no students'.

[Loz]

If you are renting out a private room or house share, you can still specify male or female.

[DaveR]

I confess that unhappily I wasn't that surprised that, when asked by a prospective client, agents were willing to go along with it. What this doesn't tell us though is whether this is in fact widespread i.e. agents actually being asked to discriminate based on race by real landlords, or discriminating for anuy other reason.