President Trump Signs Executive Order to Restrict Institutional Investors from Purchasing Single-Family Homes

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at preventing large institutional investors from acquiring single-family homes, with the goal of making homeownership more accessible to American families.

The order directs federal agencies to issue guidance that would prevent programs from approving, insuring, guaranteeing, securitizing, or facilitating sales of single-family homes to institutional investors. It also instructs agencies to promote sales to individual owner-occupants through first-look policies, disclosure requirements, and anti-circumvention measures.

The Treasury Department has been given 30 days to define "large institutional investor" and "single-family home," while relevant federal agencies have 60 days to explore ways to prohibit such entities from purchasing single-family homes.

The order includes exceptions for build-to-rent properties that are planned, permitted, financed, and constructed as rental communities, as well as other narrowly tailored exceptions deemed appropriate by the applicable agency.

In the order, President Trump stated, "Neighborhoods and communities once controlled by middle-class American families are now run by faraway corporate interests. People live in homes, not corporations."

Following the announcement, shares of major institutional investors in the housing market experienced declines. For instance, Blackstone Inc., which manages a substantial rental housing portfolio, saw its stock price decrease.

Critics argue that firms like Blackstone reduce the availability of homes and drive up prices, while institutional investors contend that the lack of housing supply, rather than corporate ownership, is responsible for rising prices.