President Donald Trump said the U.S. should ban large institutional investors from buying single-family homes, arguing that corporate ownership has helped put housing even further out of reach for ordinary Americans.
“Buying and owning a home has long been considered the pinnacle of the American dream. It was the reward for working hard and doing the right thing, but now, due to the record inflation caused by Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress, that American dream is increasingly out of reach for far too many people, especially younger Americans,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday.
“For this reason and many others, I am taking immediate action to ban large institutional investors from purchasing more single-family homes, and I will call on Congress to codify this. People live in homes, not businesses,” he added.
Private equity giants, real estate investment trusts and other large institutional investors have built sizable portfolios of single-family rental homes over the past decade. Many have argued that these investments have reduced the housing supply for potential homeowners and helped drive up prices.
Invitation housesthe largest landlord of single-family homes in the country, fell 6%. Shares of Blackstonean investment company that owns and rents single-family homes fell more than 5%. Private equity companies Apollo Global Management also fell by over 5%.
According to the National Association of Realtors, the national median price for existing single-family homes was $426,800 in the third quarter of 2025, after reaching a record $435,300 over the summer. According to Mortgage News Daily, the average interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is currently 6.19%.
Blackstone was the largest private equity owner of apartments in the U.S., with more than 230,000 units, according to data released last year by the Private Equity Stakeholder Project. Blackstone has spent billions in recent years acquiring real estate companies such as Tricon Residential, American Campus Communities and AIR Communities.
Trump did not provide details about how such a ban would be implemented. Trump said he plans to unveil additional housing and affordability proposals during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos in two weeks.
Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Housing Committee, said that while he supports Trump's push for affordability, the better path is his bipartisan ROAD to Housing bill.
“2026 must be the year we improve housing affordability for working families. I applaud President Trump's desire to look for ways to attract more homeowners, especially first-time homeowners,” Scott said in a statement to CNBC's Emily Wilkins. “My focus is on advancing meaningful solutions that expand housing supply and reduce costs – including advancing our unanimously passed ROAD to Housing Act – because that’s how we make the American Dream more attainable.”
—CNBC's Alex Harring contributed reporting.