Block on Big Investors: Trump Enacts Order to Curb Home Purchases

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at halting large institutional investors, particularly those linked to Wall Street, from purchasing single-family homes. The White House argues that these properties should be accessible to families.

The order, titled “Preventing Wall Street from Competing with Main Street Homebuyers,” establishes a policy to stop these entities from pushing individual buyers out of the residential market.

Guidelines and Timelines

The directive instructs the administration to set definitions and guidelines with specific deadlines:

Within 30 days: The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, must define “large institutional investor” and “single-family home” for the order's implementation.

Within 60 days: Several agencies, including Agriculture, HUD, Veterans Affairs, General Services, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, are required to issue guidelines to prevent, “to the maximum extent permitted by law,” federal entities and government-sponsored enterprises from approving, insuring, guaranteeing, securitizing, or facilitating the purchase of single-family homes by large institutional investors. They must also promote sales to owner-occupants, including “anti-evasion” provisions, “first-look” policies, and disclosure requirements.

Treasury Review: The order mandates a review by the Treasury of rules and guidelines related to the purchase or ownership of single-family homes by institutional buyers and to consider changes as permitted by applicable law.

Antitrust and Market Transparency

The Department of Justice and the FTC are asked to review substantial acquisitions, including “series of acquisitions,” for anticompetitive effects and to prioritize the enforcement of antitrust laws against coordinated vacancy and pricing strategies in local single-family rental markets, where applicable.

Transparency in Federal Programs: HUD is directed to require disclosure from owners/managers affiliated with single-family rentals participating in federal assistance programs to assess the involvement of large institutional investors “to the maximum extent permitted by law.”

Legislative Path: A legislative recommendation is to be developed to codify the Section 1 policy.

Addressing Housing Affordability

The document states that the dream of homeownership has become more challenging due to inflation and high interest rates, with a growing number of single-family homes being acquired by large investors, thus displacing families—especially young and working ones—who cannot compete with their resources.

“People live in homes, not corporations,” the order declares, asserting that the administration will prevent Wall Street from treating neighborhoods like a “stock market.”

While the order focuses on “large institutional investors,” the crucial detail for implementation—what constitutes “large” and which properties are considered “single-family homes”—will be defined by the Treasury within the specified timeframe.

Additionally, it allows for “narrowly tailored” exceptions for properties built for rent, planned and financed as rental communities, among others deemed appropriate by each agency to fulfill the policy.

This announcement comes amid a national debate over the pressure institutional investors exert in certain local markets. Days earlier, American media reported that Trump was seeking to push for restrictions on these buyers as part of his housing affordability agenda.