Real estate: Faced with severe racial discrimination according to SOS Racisme, Bergé announces training

Nearly one in two real estate agencies accepts or facilitates racial discrimination in access to housing, according to testing unveiled Sunday, January 25 by SOS Racisme, the results of which show that "there is still a long way to go" for Minister Aurore Bergé, who announced mandatory training for agents.

For this testing campaign conducted in 2025, the SOS Racisme association contacted 198 real estate agencies belonging to major brands and the network of the National Federation of Real Estate (Fnaim).

Its activists posed as landlords wishing to rent out their property, exclusively requesting "European" profiles to avoid "neighborhood problems".

Of these 198 agencies, nearly one in two (96, or 48,48%) agreed either to discriminate by selecting tenants themselves on the basis of a racial criterion (48, or 24,24%), or to be complicit in discrimination (also 48, who allowed or encouraged the owner to make this selection), according to the report, revealed by Le Parisien and which AFP was able to consult.

In total, 102 agencies (or 51,52%) refused to discriminate and clearly stated their opposition to any selection based on origin.

This study "highlights a worrying persistence of discriminatory practices that are nevertheless prohibited by criminal law," the association denounced in a statement.

When questioned by Le Parisien about these results, the Minister Delegate for the Fight against Discrimination, Aurore Bergé, recalled that "discrimination is illegal" and considered that "the SOS Racisme report shows that there is still a long way to go".

She announced the implementation of mandatory anti-discrimination training for all real estate agents. Currently, training is only mandatory for those holding a professional license, representing less than half of all agents.

A decree will be signed "in the very next few weeks, with the Minister of Housing (Vincent Jeanbrun)", she indicated in this interview.

According to her, "the current optional continuing education is insufficient, because only those who are already convinced take advantage of it."

The investigation "only confirms trends already observed, which the Fnaim has condemned," reacted the president of the Fnaim, Loïc Cantin, to AFP.

"It's a real scourge," he added. "To have a profession that lives up to its obligations, you need both training and sanctions."

This is the third testing campaign conducted by SOS Racisme on the subject, following previous surveys in 2019 and 2022. The situation has not improved compared to 2022: out of 136 agencies, 51,5% refused any discrimination and 48,5% accepted or facilitated discriminatory requests (with 25% direct acceptance and 23,5% complicity).

In a letter sent to MPs on Sunday, seen by AFP, the president of SOS Racisme, Dominique Sopo, calls on them to "speak out loud and clear" against discrimination and "act against breaches of equality".