Former U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday aimed at restricting large institutional investors from competing with individual homebuyers. The White House stated the goal is to make housing more affordable for American families. The order declared that the administration’s policy is to prevent large investors from purchasing single-family homes that could otherwise be bought by families. Trump, facing pressure to address affordability concerns before upcoming congressional elections, has recently promoted policy proposals designed to boost home ownership and reduce living costs.
The order directs the administration to promote home sales to individual buyers. It restricts federal programs from facilitating sales of single-family homes to Wall Street investors. It also mandates a review of acquisitions by large investors. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission will review these acquisitions for anti-competitive practices and prioritise enforcement against certain practices by institutional investors within the single-family home rental market. Federal agencies are instructed to allow individuals and non-institutional investors to buy foreclosed properties ahead of investors.
The White House is also set to prepare legislative recommendations to codify policies aimed at preventing large institutional investors from acquiring single-family homes. Wall Street institutions such as Blackstone, American Homes 4 Rent and Progress Residential have acquired thousands of single-family homes since the 2008 financial crisis. By June 2022, institutional investors owned approximately 450,000 homes, representing about 3% of all single-family rental homes nationally, according to a 2024 study by the Government Accountability Office.
This move by Trump aligns him with Democrats, who have criticised corporate homebuying for years, arguing it has contributed to rising housing costs. They have also unsuccessfully pushed bills to crack down on the trend. Blackstone is a global investment business that invests capital on behalf of pension funds, large institutions, and individuals. American Homes 4 Rent is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on acquiring, developing, renovating, leasing, and operating single-family homes as rental properties.
