Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Housing Market topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Panelists weigh limits on corporate ownership of single-family homes
Summary
Panelists said state lawmakers will likely reintroduce proposals to cap institutional ownership of single-family homes amid growing private-equity purchases; industry and cities urged careful design to avoid unintended effects.
An audience question prompted panelists to discuss private-equity purchases of single-family homes and pending proposals to limit institutional ownership.
Sen. Jessica Bateman said a bill limiting how many single-family homes private-equity firms can own will return this session. "That bill will be coming back, this year," she said, describing an upward trend in investment companies purchasing single-family properties and, in some cases, entire swaths of neighborhoods.
Jan Heimbaugh (Building Industry Association of Washington) said the industry is cautious about caps because developers and builders organize financing and holding companies in varied ways; he warned that overly broad limits could disincentivize capital needed for production. Karl Strader noted examples from other regions where institutional buyers accounted for a significant share of home sales and said vacant second homes are another market dynamic to track.
Panelists agreed the issue merits legislative scrutiny but emphasized the need to craft targeted rules that address genuinely disruptive ownership practices (for example, vacancy-driven market distortions) without unintentionally cutting off financing sources for new development.
The panel did not specify draft statutory language or thresholds; several speakers said they expect the legislature to take up variants of the proposal in the coming session.
