Discrimination in Access to Housing: A Test on Urban Areas in Metropolitan France

[eng] We measure the extent of discrimination in access to rental housing in the private sector using a test in the 50 largest urban areas in Metropolitan France, covering several grounds of discrimination: age, origin, place of residence and combinations thereof. The protocol consisted of sending, between June and December 2016, five fictitious applications in response to a selection of 5,000 advertisements for private rental housing spread throughout Metropolitan France. We check whether discrimination in access to housing depends on the characteristics of the applicants, those of the advertiser and those of the local context. We do not highlight any discrimination based on the applicant’s age. We do find a positive effect of reporting living in low-rent housing or in a housing estate. We also find significant discrimination according to origin, which penalises applicants whose surnames and first names indicate a North African or African origin.