Lawmakers, industry witnesses urge tailoring of H.607 to avoid chilling housing investment

Chair Debbie Dalton convened the House General and Housing committee on March 12 to begin reviewing H.607, a bill aimed at addressing purchases of single-family and small multifamily housing by institutional and private-equity buyers. Witnesses told the committee the proposal raises tradeoffs that merit careful tailoring rather than a blanket prohibition.

Peter Tucker, director of advocacy and public policy for the Vermont Association of Realtors, said his organization will "oppose H.607 as constructed at this point," calling the measure a "big city problem" that does not reflect Vermont's largely rural housing market. "Policies that unintentionally discourage housing investment, particularly from out of state capital sources, risks slowing development and rehabilitation of housing at a time when Vermont needs more investment, not less," Tucker said.

Tucker and other witnesses urged lawmakers to focus on how the bill defines an "institutional investor." He noted counsel's three-category test and questioned a 10-unit threshold in the draft, citing an executive-order threshold of 100 single-family homes as a…