The Senate moved closer Wednesday to advancing a sweeping housing package aimed at boosting affordability, but a Trump-backed provision banning institutional investors from buying single-family homes is emerging as a flashpoint.
Lawmakers cleared another procedural hurdle for the bill on Wednesday, setting up a likely final vote before they leave Washington on Thursday.
The Housing for the 21st Century Act passed the House last month in a 390-9 bipartisan vote. The legislation includes a wide-ranging slate of measures designed to increase the supply of affordable housing.
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Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the chair of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., its top Democrat, teamed up to advance and modify the bill in the Senate.
« When President [Donald] Trump and Elizabeth Warren and Senate Republicans can all come to the same place on a housing bill, it shows that if you put partisan politics aside and focus on the issues impacting the American people, you can get results, » Scott told CNBC’s « Squawk Box. »
In its original form, the legislation was primarily intended to help first-time homebuyers and lower-income Americans enter the housing market or gain access to more affordable housing options.
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But the initial bill lacked a key policy Trump wanted: a ban on institutional investors, such as hedge funds or large corporations, buying single-family homes. Trump earlier this year signed an executive order banning the practice and urged Congress to codify it during his State of the Union address.
« I’m asking Congress to make that ban permanent because homes for people — really, that’s what we want, » Trump said. « We want homes for people, not for corporations. »
Scott and Warren added that provision to the bill. If passed, the package would also incorporate several policies from the ROAD to Housing Act, a separate Senate housing proposal that previously stalled.
The provision would prohibit large-scale investors from purchasing single-family homes and would require companies that exceed a certain ownership threshold to divest within seven years.
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But the institutional investor ban is drawing concerns from some Senate Democrats and industry stakeholders, who argue it could eliminate build-to-rent housing units.
Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said on the Senate floor that « there is a problem » with the bill. He argued the ban on corporations and hedge funds buying single-family homes was written in a way that would force « anybody who owns and rents out more than 350 units, single family or duplexes » to sell after a seven-year period.
« There’s literally no reason for this, » Schatz said. « And the problem is that it was written in such a way that it was trying to capture the hedge fund problem, but they wrote it wrong. »
« And so the definition of institutional investor says, essentially, anyone who owns and operates more than 350 units to rent — that’s bananas, » he continued.
Several members of the housing and rental industry wrote in a letter to Scott and Warren that the seven-year clause would « effectively shut down build-to-rent development, leading to less supply and fewer options for renters. »
Source link : https://www.foxnews.com/politics/bipartisan-housing-push-advances-trump-backed-investor-ban-faces-resistance
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Publish date : 2026-03-12 00:06:00
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