Landlords from an ethnic background are being discriminated against on rentals on room sharing site AirBnB.
According to a study by Warwick University, black and Asian landlords get less rent on AirBnB than white homeowners looking to rent out similar properties in the same area.
This ethnic price gap – which is an average 6% for London properties on AirBnB – is a result of guests discriminating against hosts from an ethnic background.
“As a result of this ‘statistical discrimination’ ethnic minority hosts have to set their prices lower to meet the demand,” Roland Rathelot, assistant professor of economics at Warwick, said, according to a report in The Times.
AirBnB is an online service which allows people to rent out rooms in their homes, or even entire properties. The site has over 2 million listings in over 190 countries.
