It's illegal but the rental contract is private, so it can be denied without explanation; good luck suing and proving that you're being discriminated.
The discrimination in public ads and places like restaurants is strictly illegal, though essentially not enforced unless you sue, because of the multitude of reasons - racism and lax anti-discrimination policies in particular, and also a million of others (the entire rental housing market is almost unregulated, for one). Lately, most popular ad sites implemented their own discrimination bans, however it still doesn't guarantee that the landlord won't be an asshole.
> It's illegal but the rental contract is private, so it can be denied without explanation; good luck suing and proving that you're being discriminated.
How is this different than in other places in Europe
When worded like this, it's not that different. It's the little details that add up, depending on the actual country. You're much less likely to be discriminated against in UK or Germany than in places like Bulgaria, Ukraine, or Russia. Due to both the attitude and enforcement. The rental market in Germany seems over-regulated, but my black friend of Ethiopian descent (he's Russian, born and raised) had no problem finding a place to live there, while in Russia he's been overtly or silently rejected by the landlords so often so he had to rent the apartment from myself for a year despite it being far away from his work.
i wonder if blatant discrimination against black people is less likely to occur in places like UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, Canada, and US (ok not really the US but lets say for sake of argument) because of the collective guilt white people in those countries carry for colonization, slavery, and other shitty things; whereas slavic and other eastern european people never really did any of those really shitty things to black people. not only that but if i remember correctly ussr and early china provided quite a bit of aid to third world countries in order to overthrow collonialism. that said any discrimination against people is plain disgusting
The discrimination in public ads and places like restaurants is strictly illegal, though essentially not enforced unless you sue, because of the multitude of reasons - racism and lax anti-discrimination policies in particular, and also a million of others (the entire rental housing market is almost unregulated, for one). Lately, most popular ad sites implemented their own discrimination bans, however it still doesn't guarantee that the landlord won't be an asshole.