House Passes Housing Bill, Drops 7-Year Built-to-Rent Divestiture Rule

5 articles · Updated · POLITICO · May 24

The House approved a revised housing bill after stripping a Senate provision that would have forced large investors to sell single-family built-to-rent homes after seven years.
That change reflected pushback from Maxine Waters and housing-industry groups, who argued the Senate language could chill investment and reduce an important source of housing supply.
The final House package kept much of the Senate's private-equity crackdown but removed several other Senate provisions and added bipartisan community-bank deregulation measures backed by Chair French Hill.
The White House, which had pressed lawmakers to accept the Senate bill despite Trump's private reservations, shifted to support the House version after last-minute revisions.
Senate leaders including Elizabeth Warren and Tim Scott have not said whether they will take up the House bill, leaving the measure's path forward uncertain.

Lawmakers are targeting investors, but have they overlooked the simpler solution to the housing crisis: just building more homes?

With Wall Street blamed for high home prices, will restricting a small number of investors actually solve the national housing shortage?