MORE than 40 per cent of room rental advertisements in the Klang Valley were found to contain explicit racial discrimination.
The findings were revealed in the report Room Rental Discrimination: Volume 1 Klang Valley by Architects of Diversity (AOD), which analysed 35,367 room rental advertisements in the area.
According to the report, 42.8 per cent of advertisements displayed explicit racial discrimination, which is higher than advertisements accepting all races at 22.6 per cent and advertisements without any racial preference stated at 34.6 per cent.
The study also showed that tenants from the Indian community faced the most significant discrimination, where 31.7 per cent of all advertisements explicitly did not accept them.
This figure is much higher than the discrimination rate against Malay tenants at 7.6 per cent and Chinese tenants at 3.9 per cent.
According to the report, advertisements that do not discriminate against Indian tenants are on average 11.2 per cent more expensive than advertisements that do not accept them.
This situation shows that Indian tenants are not only discriminated against more often, but are also prevented from accessing more cost-effective rental advertisements.
The report also states that a tenant browsing a rental platform is statistically more likely to encounter advertisements that reject tenants of a certain race than advertisements that are clearly open to all tenants.
The difference between racial groups is also seen to be significant, with 96.1 per cent of advertisements open to Chinese tenants and 92.4 per cent to Malay tenants, but only 68.3 per cent of advertisements accepting Indian tenants.
“The most common pattern of discrimination on the platform involves the rejection of only Indian tenants, while Malay and Chinese tenants are accepted.
"This pattern covers 21.3 per cent of all advertisements in the data set," the report said.
In the same development, the study found that no area in the Klang Valley is truly free from racial discrimination.
He said that the Sentul area, which has the lowest rate of discrimination against Indian tenants, at 8.5 per cent of advertisements, still does not accept Indian tenants.
According to records, the highest rate of discrimination involves several areas, namely Ampang with 57.5 per cent of discriminatory advertisements, followed by Taman Desa (56.2 per cent), Klang (54.8 per cent), Setapak (51.1 per cent) and Bangi (50.5 per cent).
On the other hand, the area near the Kuala Lumpur city centre, such as KL City Centre (31.3 per cent) and Titiwangsa (25.7 per cent) recorded lower rates of discrimination and more inclusive advertisements.
AOD also found that advertisements that did not discriminate against Indian tenants were priced at an average of RM735, which was 11.2 per cent higher than advertisements that did not accept them, which were priced at around RM661.
This situation shows that the cheaper rental segment is disproportionately closed to Indian tenants, thus limiting their housing options to more expensive options.
The report found that tenants from the Malay community recorded the second highest rate of discrimination at 7.6 per cent of all advertisements in the Klang Valley.
Based on the study, Taman Desa recorded the highest rate of discrimination against Malay tenants at 23.1 per cent, followed by Setapak (17.9 per cent), Ampang (16.9 per cent), Kepong (15.7 per cent), Sri Petaling (15.4 per cent) and Bukit Jalil (14.8 per cent).
However, several areas recorded discrimination against very low Malay tenants, such as TTDI (1.2 per cent), Bangsar (1.5 per cent), Selayang (1.8 percent) and Sentul (2.2 per cent).
At the same time, Chinese tenants also face discrimination, albeit at the lowest rate of 3.9 per cent across the Klang Valley.
According to reports, Bangi recorded the highest rate of discrimination against Chinese tenants at 23.8 per cent, followed by Wangsa Maju (16.5 per cent), Ampang (14.5 per cent) and Sepang (13.9 per cent).
However, several areas, such as Kuchai Lama, recorded a zero-rejection rate, 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 a rate below one per cent.
Meanwhile, AOD Executive Director Jason Wee said there were situations where Indian tenants were not accepted, but Malay and Chinese tenants were accepted.
Reports received show that the issue is not just about landlords wanting to rent out rooms to their own race.
“On the contrary, there are advertisements that accept Malay and Chinese tenants, but clearly do not accept Indian tenants,” he said at a press conference in conjunction with the launch of the report on Thursday.
Therefore, he believes that the long-delayed Residential Tenancies Bill has the potential to provide protection to homeowners and tenants if tabled.
He said it is important for the law to include a clause prohibiting racial discrimination by homeowners, agents and platforms that provide rental booking and advertising services. – March 12, 2026
