The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan housing affordability bill, 396-13, that would stop large investors from buying single-family homes while allowing them to build additional housing units.
The measure is receiving support from the White House after some last-minute changes struck a balance between the Senate’s version, which placed greater restrictions on home ownership by major investors, and the House’s version, which was seen as more Wall Street-friendly.
The bill won support from the rental, construction and housing industries by removing a requirement from the Senate-passed bill that would have forced large investors — defined as those who own 350 units or more — to sell any units they built in excess of the cap within a seven-year window.
The housing affordability bill has been controversial between the House and Senate on several occasions. Both chambers passed their own versions of the bill earlier this year with strong bipartisan support, but several provisions – including those monitoring investors in the real estate market – have sparked disputes between the chambers.
It’s not clear whether the House’s revised bill will get the 60 votes needed to pass in the Senate before heading to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the Housing Committee, worked with the White House to include several provisions in the bill with Democratic support. And other senators voted against the bill in March over concerns about forced sales of rental housing, claiming it would reduce housing supply.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Tuesday in response to a question from CNBC that the Senate will “deal with it accordingly if the House passes the bill.”
Still, other senators said their original bill was correct and targeted investors who build homes with the intention of renting them out, not selling them.
The House “has essentially gutted President Trump’s main priority, which is to ensure young people have access to single-family homes to purchase,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, told CNBC in a hallway interview. He added that requiring investors to sell the homes they build is key to expanding home ownership.
“If we destroy the construction and rental industries, then so be it,” he said. “We don’t want houses to be rented out, we want them to be the way young people in particular build generational wealth.”
Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.