(finding a flatmate) What's wrong with ...

[adrianlondon]

... the French?

Saw an ad for a room to rent and it starts off

Only single woman or gay are welcomed. No French please.

I burst out laughing! Of course, this is just one person's prejudice/requirement but it made me wonder if there were any other amusing roomie requirements out there. Post here if you find any.

[roddy]

When I was apartment hunting recently I saw the following note about one apartment:

Mrs Zhang would prefer to rent to a Japanese person, as Japanese people are relatively clean.

It's not uncommon for landlords to prefer foreign tenants, although I think it's more because they think that means 'single professional' rather than 'family' or 'bunch of students'. Not sure how realistic that is. I'd imagine that particular person just had a bad experience with someone from France.

[ipsi()]

In New Zealand, Chinese landlords are often flagrantly racist, preferring to rent to Chinese over locals, as Kiwis "aren't very clean". However, they typically only advertise in the Chinese Newspapers, so most people aren't affected by it. It just means that I can't go with my girlfriend to look at flats. I could accept that in China, but in New Zealand?

[shanghaikai]

LoL. To be honest, my french friends weren't particularly good about keeping their place clean but I'm sure these things are more about individuals and their habits than about any particular race or nationality. As roddy said, there are a lot of landlords in China who prefer to rent to foreigners if possible because there is some truth that foreigners in general will respect the property better. There's also the very real possibility that a foreign is simply a more profitable tenant than their native Chinese counterpart. It is unfortunate but that's life.