They are renting out, but not to you: searching for an apartment right now is like a lottery, where landlords choose tenants from a menu.

To be honest, the room looked quite nice. For 375 euros in a town north of Madrid, just 40 minutes by bus from Moncloa: considering the prices in the capital, that's quite reasonable. Spacious, bright, with a garden that invites you to enjoy it. A clean, pleasant, cheerful place with young neighbors ready to create a good atmosphere.

The ad on Idealista stated that this is the perfect home for teachers. Listings for rental properties that cater to the teaching profession have at least a couple of reasons for this: they understand that it's guaranteed income (a teacher means economic stability) and, above all, they intend to reclaim the property in the summer.

We are not teachers, but we are so interested in this house that we are willing to keep it from June to September, if needed. As for the money, we are ready to provide all the necessary proof of our financial capability. We have contacted them about this:

— Hi, I'm David. I'm writing to you to inquire about the room you're renting out through the Idealista portal.

— Hi, David, I have one free room.

— To be honest, I would really like to see it. The only thing is, I saw in the announcement that you are looking for teachers. I am not one, but I am willing to stay in July and August. Will there be any problems?

After about four hours of waiting, a response arrives.

- The question about the teachers is related to the school holidays, alignment with the school calendar, and leaving the accommodation in June. I'm sorry that I can't help. Good luck with your search. Best wishes.

— I wouldn't mind staying in June either. To be honest, I really liked the room. Are you sure an exception can't be made?

On September 4th, we asked this question. We still haven't received a response.

In search of housing: barriers and discrimination

The search for rental housing has always been an obstacle course, where every prospective tenant tries to overcome barriers such as price, multiple deposits, or fierce competition with other potential renters. But what do you do when the obstacle to renting an apartment is yourself?

The rental market is turning into a lottery, where tenants face an increasing number of listings, and landlords choose candidates at their discretion. It's like a nightclub that constantly enforces entry rights, but without witnesses or evidence of discrimination.

These conversations are part of an experiment we conducted at Business Insider Spain to test how challenging it can be to find an apartment or room in cities like Madrid and Barcelona when a potential tenant responds to specific characteristics.

We do this quite easily: we are Spanish, white, heterosexual, about 30 years old, with an annual income of around 2000 euros, but we work as self-employed.

Despite being on our own territory, we still feel the challenges along the way.

Seasonal rentals and discrimination

In these cases, landlords justify the need to adapt to a different type of rental: seasonal rentals. This type of contract often attracts students.

“If the owner decides to rent out the apartment for a season, in accordance with the relevant rental agreement, it is quite natural that they require certain characteristics from the tenant to meet the purpose of such an agreement: if I am looking for 9 months, I will be looking for a very specific tenant profile so that the stay does not exceed 9 months,” explains Antonio Carroza, president of Alquiler Seguro.

In the Canary Islands, since it is a tourist market, contracts of this type are made on a daily basis, says Provivienda lawyer Carmen Maria Gomez: "They try to give the character of a tourist apartment to a rental that it is not, and as a result, we see a chain of contracts that, if combined, show that the same person has been living in the same apartment for several years."

Discrimination in the rental market

No one can imagine an office or a pharmacy that only students can enter, or where men, women, or self-employed individuals are not allowed.

On portals like Idealista, there are plenty of listings that restrict the search for tenants to women only, and there’s even a filter that allows you to exclude one of the two genders. This is a barrier that, however, is understood due to the negative experiences many women have faced.

It is important to remember that in Spain, according to the Urban Lease Law, property owners have the full right to rent their property to whomever they deem appropriate.

The problem is that the list of filters applied by some landlords is getting longer, and this is yet another manifestation of the Wild West in the housing sector of big cities, where many people are looking for apartments and there are few available for everyone. The more difficult it is to rent housing in the market, the more power landlords have to impose their conditions, even if they may seem arbitrary.

“The market is moving at a rapid pace, and there are fewer offers. High demand for housing and a lack of supply, combined with the continuous rise in rental prices, have made the process of selecting a tenant feel like a tax audit,” explains Teresa Toscano, director of the law firm Toscanolex.

However, discrimination also exists in the opposite direction. Elena Martinez Goitre, responsible for research and evaluation at Provivienda, explains that there is a lot of discrimination against women and single-parent families. "There are landlords who believe that a single woman is less capable of paying rent if she has children."

The situation becomes even worse when being a woman is compounded by other factors such as sexual orientation, gender identity, or nationality. "If you are not only a non-white person, but also a woman with children, you are more likely to face discrimination due to just one factor; this is what we call the intersectionality of discrimination," adds Martinez Goitre.

Self-employed and discrimination

Ana Beltrán is a photojournalist working for publications such as El Confidencial, El Nacional, and Eldiario.es. Her work, available to everyone online, allows her to earn a net annual income of around 25,000 euros. Young but quite reliable, with several years of experience in her profession, on paper, Beltrán should be an extremely attractive candidate for any employer.

A few months ago, however, she had to give up her search for housing to move in with her friend. The reason is simple: she just couldn't find anything for rent, even though she and her friend were looking for something quite standard: an apartment for 800 euros a month, 400 for each of them, which is a reasonable amount for her income level.

“I have been renting for 13 years and have seen it all: from rental subsidies that cannot be obtained because the contract is not part of IVIMA, to landlords who use family ties to increase apartment prices,” explains Beltran over the phone to Business Insider Spain.

However, she was surprised by what happened during the search for housing: "I often found that the conversation would end as soon as I mentioned that I was a self-employed entrepreneur. They didn't even want to rent the apartment, even when my mother was listed as a guarantor."

In the end, she and her friend had to give up their plan to live together. Now each of them is back to renting a room again.

The real estate portal Fotocasa also understands the position of property owners: "The existing legal uncertainty in the rental market is causing owners to increasingly protect themselves, demand guarantees and conditions that are often difficult to meet, and prioritize more financially stable tenants over others, rather than certain vulnerable groups."

It is important to note that in such cases, it is difficult to speak of discrimination, although they can be considered unfair. "We need to distinguish between discrimination and choice. When I submit my resume for a job, I understand that I will be selected. But what I cannot accept is discrimination," emphasizes Carróza.

“Economic discrimination and racial discrimination in the market sector are not that different, for example. In the case of racial discrimination, it involves two candidates with the same economic indicators, where higher demands are placed on one of them, or one of them is denied the opportunity to rent an apartment due to their background,” explains Martinez Goitre.

The emergence of racial discrimination

In 2021, Yamile, a Colombian girl who arrived in Spain a couple of years ago and prefers to keep her identity private, had to endure this type of discrimination.

"This is the first time that..."