Trump Issues Exec. Order to Ban Large Investors from Buying Homes
New York, NY, January 21, 2026-"President Trump accelerated his effort to ban institutional investors from buying single-family homes, issuing an executive order Tuesday that laid out new steps to stop Wall Street home purchases,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
“The order directs executive agencies to find ways to stop the federal government from backing loans and providing other financial incentives for institutional investor purchases of single-family homes that might otherwise have been bought by an individual homeowner.
“Trump’s order also bans those agencies from unloading any federally owned homes to large institutional investors.
“‘My Administration will take decisive action to stop Wall Street from treating America’s neighborhoods like a trading floor and empower American families to own their homes,’ Trump said in his executive order.
“The order, however, leaves a number of questions unanswered. It doesn’t address immediate steps for implementation. Instead, Trump is asking his White House staff to put together ‘a legislative recommendation’ to codify this ban through Congress.
“And Trump has yet to define who qualifies as a ‘large institutional investor’ and what counts as a ‘single-family home.’ As part of this order, he directed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to come up with those definitions in the next 30 days.
“Trump’s executive order comes the day before he is slated to speak at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where, he has said, he will sketch out his plan for making the housing market more affordable.
“In addition to his pledge to ban large investors from home buying, Trump this month said the government-backed mortgage-finance companies would buy $200 billion in mortgage bonds in an effort to lower mortgage rates.
“Trump will also issue a new plan for letting Americans tap their 401(k) retirement accounts for a down payment on a home without penalty, a senior White House official said.
“U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Republican from Ohio, has said that he would introduce legislation to implement Trump’s ban on large investors. In an interview last week, however, he said that legislation was still in early stages and would take at least 60 days.
“‘We are in the discovery phase,’ Moreno said. ‘I would never want to go ahead of the president.’
“Trump’s executive order on Tuesday includes an exemption for ‘build-to-rent’ communities: neighborhoods of newly constructed single-family homes produced specifically to be rented out.
“Developers argue that investors of build-to-rent properties don’t compete with individual home buyers and instead help people live in pricier neighborhoods where they cannot afford to own.
“Trump’s order instructs government agencies to look more closely at investor home purchases. He is directing the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether large institutional investors have inhibited competition in local housing markets.
“The order mandates that the Department of Housing and Urban Development create a registry of single-family rental owners that receive federal housing assistance to track the presence of large institutional owners.
“Wall Street’s presence in the housing market expanded after the subprime mortgage crisis exploded in 2007. But institutional investors have never owned more than a small slice of the overall housing market: around 2% to 3%, by some estimates.
“Still, the Trump administration has been scrambling for policy proposals to help boost housing affordability, which has become a top voter priority ahead of this year’s midterm elections.
“‘While the intention may be good, ultimately, any regulation on the single-family rental industry is only going to be deleterious to what he’s trying to do,’ said Adam Wolfson, a Florida build-to-rent developer who sold one tranche of single-family homes to J.P. Morgan.
“Trump’s proposals so far this year have focused on boosting demand by helping home buyers afford homes. Economists and industry experts say that is not enough, and that the housing affordability problem also requires adding more supply to the market.”