TPA Applauds House GOP Leaders for Pushing Back Against Senate Housing Bill

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) applauded House leadership for reaching a bipartisan deal on housing legislation. The latest proposal stands in stark contrast to the Senate-passed 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which included sweeping restrictions on “institutional investors” in the housing market. Most notably, the House proposal strips a controversial Senate provision that requires a seven-year divestiture period for single-family homes built to rent.

In response, Ross Marchand, Executive Director of TPA, offered the following comment:

“TPA applauds House leadership for refusing to rubber-stamp the Senate’s housing bill. The Senate version includes sweeping restrictions on large institutional investors in single-family housing, and the House version wisely pares these restrictions back. America’s housing crisis is a supply crisis, and vilifying a wide swath of housing providers would only make it worse.”

“Institutional investors account for less than 1% of the total U.S. single-family housing stock and are buying less than 2 percent of all homes, while local land-use restrictions, permitting delays, and costly regulations remain major barriers to affordability. Targeting investors may score easy political points, but it will not pour foundations, speed up approvals, or lower construction costs.

“Worse, those restrictions would risk chilling investment in build-to-rent communities, renovations, and new housing supply at precisely the moment families need more options, including more affordable rental housing. Instead of competing with traditional homebuyers, institutional investors are deploying more capital into building homes to rent. Lawmakers should be clearing away the rules that make it harder and more expensive to build homes, not punishing private capital that can help bring more housing to market.”

“House leadership is right to demand and put forward a better bill. The path to affordability runs through more construction and less red tape, not federal micromanagement of who may own or finance housing. The House is rightly focused on reforms that expand supply and make it easier for builders and investors to provide homes. We urge the Senate to follow the House’s lead and pursue reforms that expand affordability rather than advancing counterproductive restrictions on investment in housing.”

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The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis, and dissemination of information on the government’s impact on the economy.