Indians most affected by racial bias in Klang Valley room rentals, study finds

PETALING JAYA - More than 40 per cent of room rental listings in the Klang Valley carry explicit racial exclusions, according to a study analysing more than 30,000 listings.

Architects of Diversity’s (AOD) Room Rental Discrimination: Volume 1 Klang Valley report analysed 35,367 listings and found that 42.8 per cent carried explicit racial exclusions — exceeding listings open to all races (22.6 per cent) and those with no stated preference (34.6 per cent).

Renters from the Indian community faced the most severe exclusion, with 31.7 per cent of listings explicitly excluding them. This compares with 7.6 per cent for Malay renters and 3.9 per cent for Chinese renters.

“Listings that do not discriminate against Indian renters are on average 11.2 per cent more expensive than those that do, meaning Indian renters are not only excluded more often but are being shut out of listings that would be cost-effective.

“A renter browsing the platform is statistically more likely to encounter a listing that excludes a racial group than one that is explicitly open to all tenants. Indian renters bear the greatest burden,” the report said.

The disparity between racial groups is stark. While 96.1 per cent of listings are open to Chinese renters and 92.4 per cent to Malay renters, only 68.3 per cent accept Indian renters.

“The most common discriminatory pattern on the platform is the exclusion of Indian renters alone, while accepting Malay and Chinese tenants — a pattern that accounts for 21.3 per cent of all listings in the dataset,” the report added.

The report also found that no area in the Klang Valley is free from discrimination.

“Even in Sentul, the area with the lowest Indian discrimination rate, 8.5 per cent of listings still exclude Indian renters,” it said.

The five most discriminatory areas in the Klang Valley are Ampang, where 57.5 per cent of listings are discriminatory, followed by Taman Desa (56.2 per cent), Klang (54.8 per cent), Setapak (51.1 per cent) and Bangi (50.5 per cent).

“These are large, well-populated residential areas with substantial listing volumes, meaning the absolute number of discriminatory listings in these localities is very high.

“By contrast, areas closer to the Kuala Lumpur city core, such as KL City Centre (31.3 per cent) and Titiwangsa (25.7 per cent), tend to record lower discrimination rates and higher shares of inclusive listings,” it said.

The report also found that listings that do not discriminate against Indian renters are priced, on average, 11.2 per cent higher (RM735) than those that exclude them (RM661).

“This suggests that the cheaper segments of the rental market are disproportionately closed off to Indian renters, leaving them with a smaller and more expensive pool of available housing,” it said, adding that platform design enables discrimination at scale.

Malay renters face the second-highest exclusion rate at 7.6 per cent of listings across the Klang Valley, although the rate varies significantly by area.

Taman Desa recorded the highest Malay discrimination rate at 23.1 per cent, followed by Setapak (17.9 per cent) and Ampang (16.9 per cent). Kepong (15.7 per cent), Sri Petaling (15.4 per cent) and Bukit Jalil (14.8 per cent) also recorded elevated rates.

At the opposite end, areas such as TTDI (1.2 per cent), Bangsar (1.5 per cent), Selayang (1.8 per cent) and Sentul (2.2 per cent) recorded very low rates of Malay exclusion.

Shah Alam recorded a Malay discrimination rate of 2.9 per cent, consistent with the demographic composition of its landlord base. Similarly, KL City Centre (3.0 per cent) and Ampang Hilir (2.3 per cent) recorded low exclusion rates.

Chinese renters face the lowest exclusion rate overall at 3.9 per cent across the Klang Valley, although several areas record significantly higher levels.

Bangi recorded the highest Chinese discrimination rate at 23.8 per cent — six times the regional average — followed by Wangsa Maju (16.5 per cent), Ampang (14.5 per cent) and Sepang (13.9 per cent).

In contrast, Kuchai Lama recorded zero Chinese exclusion, while Sri Petaling (0.5 per cent), Subang Jaya (0.8 per cent), Taman Desa (0.8 per cent) and Segambut (0.9 per cent) recorded rates below 1 per cent.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, AOD executive director Jason Wee said some listings explicitly exclude Indian tenants while accepting both Malay and Chinese tenants.

“What this shows is that this is not simply a case of landlords wanting to rent only to their own race. If that were true, we would see a much stronger pattern of Malay-only or Chinese-only listings,” he said.

Instead, he said, many listings accept both Malay and Chinese tenants but explicitly exclude Indian renters.

Wee said the long-delayed Residential Tenancy Act could provide protections for both landlords and tenants if tabled.

He said the legislation should include provisions prohibiting racial discrimination by landlords, agents and rental platforms.

“This is critical to ensure discrimination protections are enforceable across the board,” he said.

The report analysed publicly accessible rental listing data from a popular online platform.

Listings were classified as discriminatory if landlords activated the platform’s race preference function and explicitly excluded one or more racial groups (Malay, Chinese, Indian or Other).

Price bounds of RM200 to RM1,500 were applied to filter out non-room-rental entries.

AOD said a second report covering listings across Peninsular Malaysia will be released later. - THE STAR