U.S. will ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes, Trump says

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration is moving to ban Wall Street investors from buying single-family homes in a bid to reduce home prices, a potential blow for private-equity landlords.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he was taking immediate action and would ask Congress to codify the measure, adding he would also be discussing additional housing and affordability proposals in a speech at the Davos World Economic Forum.

“For a very long time, buying and owning a home was considered the pinnacle of the American Dream,” Trump wrote, going on to add that inflation had put that dream out of reach for many Americans.

“People live in homes, not corporations,” Trump said.

Wall Street institutions including Blackstone have bought up thousands of single family homes since the financial crisis of 2008 led to a wave of home foreclosures. The trend has attracted criticism from housing advocacy groups and lawmakers, including Democrats, who claim institutional landlords have stoked rent inflation.

Homebuilder shares dropped sharply in the wake of Trump’s comments. American Homes 4 Rent dropped to a near three-year low of US$28.84 and was halted for volatility. Its shares were last down nearly six per cent at $30.56.

Blackstone shares hit a one-month low of $147.52 and were last down about five per cent at $154.49. The PHLX housing index was down 2.1 per cent on the session, on track for its biggest daily percentage drop since Nov. 17.

Blackstone did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

It was not immediately clear what legal authority Trump would draw upon to impose such a ban on the private market purchases of houses. Trump did not detail the policy, the form it would take or the legal changes he was seeking from Congress.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. president was due to sign unspecified executive orders later on Wednesday.

The Republican president is under growing pressure to address voter anxiety over the cost of living ahead of midterm elections that will determine whether Trump’s Republicans retain control of Congress.

Trump, who has occasionally dismissed affordability concerns and blamed inflation on his Democratic predecessor, has seen his own public approval mostly sag since his inauguration as Americans worry about the state of the economy.

(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; additional reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Caitlin Webber, David Ljunggren, Michelle Price and Cynthia Osterman)