The Senate on Thursday passed the largest housing affordability bill in 30 years by an 89-10 vote, including a ban on investors buying single-family homes.
But the bill faces a bigger fight in the House, which passed its own bipartisan legislation in February. House GOP leaders have already said the measure would need to be negotiated, suggesting they would not take up a Senate-passed bill. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told fellow House Republicans in a closed-door meeting earlier this week that the measure is likely to be overshadowed by differences between the two chambers’ versions.
One of the biggest issues is the restriction on investors and companies from purchasing single-family homes if they already own 350 or more. Companies that increase housing supply through building or serious renovation will be able to own more homes, but they will not be required to sell those homes after more than seven years.
That provision was not initially in the Senate bill, or in the House-passed bill, but President Donald Trump supported the ban. told He will not sign any bill without it.
Residential apartment buildings and homes in the Queens borough of New York, US, on Friday, January 16, 2026.
Michael Nagel | Bloomberg | getty images
Several industry groups, including the National Association of Home Builders, the Mortgage Bankers Association and the National Housing Conference, said in a position statement That the seven-year limit would eliminate the production of build-to-rent housing and “take hundreds of thousands of housing units out of the market over the next decade, many of which serve low- and moderate-income families.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., supported adding the institutional investment home ownership limit and said it would protect consumers.
“They can build as many apartment houses, as many condo complexes, as many triplexes as they want,” Warren said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday. “But there is a point of principle here, and that is that private equity can’t come to America and buy up all the supply of housing. Homes should be for families, not giant corporations.”
However, that view was not universally shared.
Senator Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, who voted against the bill, said the limit of 350 homes is “bananas” and would ultimately lead to a ban on rental housing. Like Warren, Schatz also has a liberal voting record.
“I don’t think people see how bad this is going to be on the supply side,” he said. He said it would “deplete” the single-family and duplex rental market.