Trump Pushes to Ban Institutional Investors From Buying Single-Family Homes

President Donald Trump said he is seeking to ban institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes, framing the proposal as a key step toward addressing the worsening affordability crisis in the U.S. housing market.

Trump announced the plan on Wednesday via social media, offering few details on how the ban would be implemented but saying he would ask Congress to codify the measure into law. “People live in homes, not corporations,” Trump wrote, positioning the proposal as a populist response to rising housing costs.

The president said the issue would feature prominently in a forthcoming speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos later this month, alongside other initiatives aimed at easing the cost of living for American households.

Financial markets reacted swiftly to Trump’s comments. Shares of Blackstone, one of the largest institutional investors in U.S. single-family rental housing, fell as much as 9.3% following the announcement.

Blackstone has built a sizable presence in the sector over recent years. In 2021, it acquired Home Partners of America in a $6 billion deal, adding around 17,000 rental homes to its portfolio. More recently, the firm completed a $3.5 billion acquisition of Toronto-based Tricon Residential, bringing an additional 38,000 U.S. rental homes under its control.

Trump has repeatedly signaled that housing will be a central pillar of his domestic policy agenda, promising last month to unveil what he described as “some of the boldest housing reform plans in U.S. history” during the year.

Investor activity has become a flashpoint in the housing debate. At the start of 2025, investors of all sizes accounted for roughly 30% of single-family home purchases. While small investors make up more than 90% of investor owners, large institutional players control about 2% of the nation’s single-family rental housing stock, a relatively small share, but one that critics say has an outsized impact in certain local markets.

U.S. housing costs have surged in recent years, driven by a historic shortage of supply following a prolonged slowdown in construction after the global financial crisis. Demand intensified during the pandemic, pushing prices sharply higher. The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller composite index for 20 major U.S. cities shows home prices climbed 68% between January 2020 and August last year.