From perception to preference: anticipated discrimination and housing search behaviour among minorities

Greenwich Campus

QA044

This event is part of PEGFA’s seminar series where current research papers are presented and discussed. It will be split into two sessions. In the second talk we will hear Navjot Sangwan present their paper on 'From perception to preference: anticipated discrimination and housing search behaviour among minorities', which is described in the abstract below.

Details on the first talk and other PEGFA seminars

---

Discrimination in housing markets has been widely documented, yet existing studies focus almost entirely on the supply side - how landlords treat minority applicants - while overlooking how minorities themselves respond to the expectation of bias. This paper examines how anticipated discrimination shapes housing search behaviour in the United Kingdom. Using an online survey experiment with 848 respondents stratified by ethnicity, participants were shown images of high-, medium-, and low-quality rental properties and asked to rate both their likelihood of applying and their perceived probability of landlord acceptance. Results show that minority respondents do not report lower expected acceptance rates than White respondents, yet they are significantly more likely to apply for medium- and low-quality housing. These differences remain after controlling for income, education, age, gender and employment, suggesting that minorities engage in self-limiting behaviour. The findings highlight a potential demand-side mechanism through which perceptions of bias may influence housing choices and, in turn, shape residential outcomes.

Presenter:
Navjot Sangwan

Location:
University of Greenwich, Queen Anne Building, QA044

Teams (Online) details:

Meeting ID: 319 421 430 872 5
Passcode: N9eW6W66

Join the seminar now

BOOKING REQUIRED

Join the Seminar