Landlord refuses tenants who are not white Kiwis

An Auckland woman is horrified her landlord told her the only reason she was allowed to rent a home in the suburb of Remuera was because she initially thought she was European.

‘‘She said ‘I only rent my house to European people or white Kiwis, and when you applied I saw your licence and I thought you were a European person’,’’ Sabrina said. ‘‘There will be many people who are affected by this.’’

Sabrina, who didn’t want her last name used, fearing it would make it harder to find a rental or that she would be evicted, was in the process of flat-hunting after wanting to downsize from the flat she had called home for four years.

But she’s been struggling to find a place for months.

A few weeks ago her landlord came to the property when Sabrina mentioned she was having a hard time finding a new place to live. ‘‘She bluntly said ‘it’s going to be hard for you to find a place here. I only gave you a contract because I thought you were European’,’’ she said.

Sabrina, who comes from Bangladesh, said she was taken aback and the landlord left, but she gave her the benefit of the doubt.

It wasn’t until the landlord returned and Sabrina asked about the nationality issues again, when the landlord told her she initially thought she was European when she saw her driver’s licence.

Sabrina said she was also living with a French flatmate, which was why the landlord assumed they were both European. Asked why she had been allowed to live in the home, and had her contract renewed every year, the landlord replied ‘‘I realised you’re different’’, Sabrina said. ‘‘That was quite a bit of a shock for me.’’

As Sabrina was leaving the flat last Saturday, so the landlord could hold a viewing, she was told a European couple had already been chosen to take over the tenancy.

‘‘I only selected two groups of Europeans to come view the property today. I don’t want any immigrants or people from other countries to view the house’’, the landlord told Sabrina.

Sabrina said it was disheartening, after living in New Zealand for 10 years and as a permanent resident, to now feel like she didn’t belong in the country she calls home.

‘‘A specific group of people can rent and live here. And when you walk around the neighbourhood where I live, that is the case, you don’t see much diversity around here.’’

But Sabrina didn’t want to leave the area, because it was convenient to where she works. ‘‘I can, of course, go somewhere like Papatoetoe or Mt Roskill, where there are people who look like me everywhere, and it will be easy to rent a house.

‘‘But just because I look a certain way doesn’t mean I have to live in that area. As a citizen of this country I should have a choice of where I want to live without being racially profiled.’’

She believed there would be many others in the same situation but said confronting the landlords, or complaining to Tenancy Services, wasn’t worth it.

‘‘Sometimes in my situation, being a person of colour, it’s quite hard to confront and hard to voice.’’

Sabrina found the property through Barfoot & Thompson, and she believed the landlord had other properties throughout Auckland.

Caroline Dobby, interim head of brand at Barfoot & Thompson, said the agency had strict processes to avoid racial profiling from happening.

‘‘As a citizen of this country I should have a choice of where I want to live without being racially profiled.’’ Auckland resident Sabrina