8th December 2025
Discrimination based on skin color, language, religion, and social status—these are the experiences of foreigners looking for housing rentals in Lithuania. This was revealed by a study conducted by the Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson.
“At first, everything seemed fine <…>. But when he asked for my name <…>, he immediately said: ‘So you are a foreigner?’ – and refused,” shared a participant from Nigeria.
“The worst experience was when I arranged to view an apartment (the landlord knew I was a foreigner), but when I arrived, he simply said: ‘Sorry, no.’ When I asked why, he replied: ‘I didn’t expect you to be Black’,” shared a study participant from South Africa.
No Rentals for Foreigners
“I speak a language other than Lithuanian, and most landlords would hang up as soon as they realized we weren’t Lithuanian,” shared a study participant from Iran. Another man, who has lived and worked in Lithuania for eight years, noted that only 10–20% of landlords responded to his inquiries.
“Even if they understand what you are saying, they act as if they don’t understand English. They say, ‘No English, please,’ and hang up. It doesn’t matter if it’s a call or a message—they never get back to you,” shared a participant who did not specify her country of origin.
“From the participants’ accounts, we can conclude that language is essentially just a signal that a foreigner is interested in the rental; the real reason for refusal is not the language itself. Participants with broader social networks mentioned asking locals—colleagues or friends—to help communicate with potential landlords. The response was still often the same: the housing is not for rent to foreigners,” notes Ieva Laugalytė, an Equality Mainstreaming Expert and one of the study’s authors.
“I didn’t expect you to be Black”
The experiences of study participants testify that finding housing in Lithuania is even more difficult for Black tenants. Situations where a rental was refused immediately upon seeing the person were a recurring theme. Participants shared that previously smooth communication would change instantly upon meeting in person: some landlords openly stated they would not rent to Black people, while others claimed the property had already been rented or stalled the process until they eventually stopped responding to messages and calls.
“I was refused housing because of my skin color. When you inquire online, they often tell you to come and see the apartment, but when they see I am Black, they tell me to come back the next day to sign the contract. You call that day—and they tell you it’s already rented,” shared a participant from Cameroon.
Another participant had a similar experience: “<…> one landlord told me straight away that he couldn’t rent me the apartment because I am Black. He said it was too high a risk for him. He was simply afraid.”
“Such stories reflect unwritten social hierarchies, where Black people are trusted even less than other foreigners. For example, an experiment conducted in the Irish rental market showed that migrants of Nigerian origin received significantly fewer invitations to view housing than Irish locals, and also significantly fewer than people from Poland. Thus, Black people are undesirable tenants not only because they are foreigners, but specifically because they are Black,” says Equality Mainstreaming Expert I. Laugalytė.
No Children and Only with Neighbors’ Approval
According to study participants, the search for rental housing was made significantly more difficult by landlords’ reluctance to rent to families with children.
“They refused to rent because there are children,” “They don’t want to take us with kids. They say they will ruin everything,” “Pregnancy was also a reason to terminate the lease (because the landlord had a previous experience where a widow with a child failed to pay the rent),” shared women who arrived in Lithuania from Ukraine.
Another story reveals how discrimination, in some cases, can also arise due to a person’s religion.
“<…> our house has two floors—we live on the second floor, and another Lithuanian family lives below. My landlord had to ask those neighbors: ‘Would it be okay with you if a Muslim family lived upstairs?’ Fortunately, our neighbors happened to be atypically open-minded, in good spirits, and saw absolutely no problem with it,” shared a woman from Indonesia.
“Landlords’ decisions are often based on prejudices and their imagination of the ‘perfect’ tenant—a Lithuanian-speaking white person, a middle-class individual or a family without children. Therefore, it is easy to imagine that a single mother arriving in Lithuania from Ukraine faces immense difficulties in finding housing. In this case, several identities intersect—being a woman, a foreigner, and a single mother—and the risk of experiencing discrimination increases even further,” notes I. Laugalytė.