President Trump announced new measures targeting housing affordability on Wednesday during the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland, including restrictions on large investment firms and hedge funds purchasing single-family homes. The announcement followed his signing of an Executive Order that restricts federal agencies from facilitating financing or insuring single-family home acquisitions by “large institutional investors.”
“The homes are built for people, not for corporations, and America will not become a nation of renters,” Trump stated to attendees at the event. He emphasized the move would prevent investment firms from dominating the residential market.
The Executive Order does not outright ban large institutional investors from buying single-family homes but imposes strict limits on conventional mortgage guarantees sought by such firms when purchasing properties. Cash buyers and investment firms using financing not backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac remain unaffected.
Recent data indicates that under the previous administration, rising mortgage costs due to inflation led to a spike in foreclosures starting in June 2024. This triggered a surge in residential property sales that attracted significant interest from alternative asset management firms like Blackstone, which acquired properties to generate rental income for investors.
