In a win for housing pros and advocates, the House released an amended version of the Senate’s 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act late May 13 that removes a provision the industry said would effectively eliminate the production of build-to-rent single-family housing and ultimately increase rent and home prices.
Multifamily groups have been sounding the alarm about the forced sale requirement in the Senate version of the major bipartisan housing bill passed on March 12. Since then, major investors and lenders have essentially stopped buying and financing build-to-rent housing due to the measure, Bisnow reported.
The new version of the bill still restricts major investors from buying single-family homes: Section 1001 says that “no covered large institutional investor may purchase, or enter into a contract to directly or indirectly purchase, any covered single-family home.” However, it contains a series of carveouts for new rental housing, homes in need of major renovations and more.
Following the House’s release of its changes, 11 prominent industry organizations sent an open letter of support on May 14, urging the House and Senate to pass the bill “as soon as possible” so it can move to the president’s desk for his signature.
“As now written, the Act will be the most significant legislation to increase housing supply in years and has the potential to meet our shared housing goals of providing more housing options and more housing affordability in communities across the country,” the letter reads.
“This legislation, now that it preserves and protects as many as 72,000 critical Build-to-Rent (BTR) homes every year, is an important step towards addressing the housing affordability challenges faced by many American households.”
Research from the Bipartisan Policy Center indicates that a bipartisan majority of voters want to see something happen on this issue, according to Francis Torres, director of BPC’s housing and infrastructure projects. He said Congress is closer than it's been in years to passing a significant federal housing package.
“There are definitely lighter restrictions in this version than what the Senate passed,” Torres told Multifamily Dive. Even though there are still differences between the House’s new version and the bill from the Senate, “there's clearly a lot of energy and momentum around this issue of housing, especially in the context of cost of living.”
What’s next
The House is now moving ahead with a vote on its amended version of the bill the week of the 18th, ahead of the Memorial Day recess, Politico reported. House leaders want to pass it under suspension of rules, an expedited process requiring a two-thirds majority that limits debate and prohibits further amendments on the floor.
If it passes, the measure will head back to the Senate for approval, although it is not clear whether the upper chamber will accept the modifications. It’s also not clear whether the president will support it.
“The bill is under review. New provisions were added before the administration had a chance to review or provide technical assistance,” a White House official told Multifamily Dive in an email. “There may be serious policy concerns or implementation challenges.”
On May 11, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social calling on Congress to pass the Senate version of the legislation, breaking his silence as the House and Senate debated the differences in their respective packages. The Senate added the BTR forced sale measure following a Feb. 9 statement that indicated Trump wouldn’t sign the housing package without a single-family investor ban. The White House endorsed the Senate version of the bill in March.
After months of no evident movement, the president's most recent statement seemed to help the process get going again, according to Torres.
“Things are kind of ramping up, in part given the president's statements on this issue; the interest in addressing housing, cost of living, affordability issues ahead of midterms; and the broader voter interest in seeing Congress do something on housing, so I think there's more optimism this week than there might have been a couple weeks ago that something can actually clear both chambers,” Torres said. “That said, there's still some very significant hurdles.”
The tension between the different versions of the bill isn’t really partisan, but rather between the House and Senate, according to Torres. Some of the biggest differences between the House and Senate versions are “highly salient” for chairs and ranking members of the relevant committees.
“It just remains to be seen how the two chambers actually find a way forward here that is acceptable to the four corners involved in the four key chairs and ranking members, [and] that overcomes this somewhat unusual bicameral tension,” Torres said.
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