Claims AI filtering Adelaide renters over ‘ethnicity’
A researcher has told SA parliament she fears AI-powered applications asking about ethnicity are unfairly sorting renters.
A Flinders University researcher has told parliament that rental tech platforms are collecting data on applicants, which could be used to discriminate against vulnerable groups like Aboriginal applicants or single mothers.
Flinders’ Centre for Social Impact Deputy Director Selina Tually told a real estate inquiry at SA parliament on Wednesday morning that rental technology was outpacing reforms, with tenants concerned about the platforms fostering discrimination.
She said one tenant, a single mother, told her she uploaded two profiles to a rent tech site, one listing her child and one that did not.
The profile that did not mention her child secured a rental property.
A Flinders University Social Impact Centre and Uniting Communities research project from 2025 revealed AI was being used frequently in the rental market to collect data that ranked candidate suitability to agents and landlords.
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“Interviews with renters and community sector workers highlighted widespread confusion and concern,” Tually’s research paper read.
“Many renters found RentTech systems difficult to understand and navigate, and described them as biased, discriminatory and lacking in accountability.”
Tually said that when researchers spoke to the rent tech platforms many declined to comment but one platform boss said information being collected was “easily accessible and would have been collected anyway”.
SA Greens leader Robert Simms, who is chairing the state parliament real estate inquiry, said Tually’s evidence was “deeply concerning”.
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“I was shocked to hear that some rental application platforms are asking people about their cultural background,” Simms said.
“What possible relevance should that have to someone’s ability to rent a home?
“Imagine being a single parent desperately trying to find a home for your family, only to discover that disclosing your child could be working against you.
“Technology should be making it easier for people to find a home, not creating another barrier for those who are already doing it tough.”
The findings emerged in the third hearing held by the parliamentary committee established to inquire into and report on the conduct of real estate agents, property managers and other real estate professionals in SA.
Earlier this month, the committee heard the state’s leading tenant advice and advocacy service was under-resourced and inundated with tenant complaint calls to its hotline, reaching around 900 a month.
The findings come as Australia’s housing crisis worsens, with Domain’s House Price report today revealing a house price slump the likes of which the country has only ever seen twice before.
“Weakened buyer confidence has driven house prices down across every capital city for the first time in 15 years and the second time ever, according to Domain’s September Quarter 2026 House Price report.”
Public submissions to SA Parliament’s real estate inquiry close Friday, October 23.
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