Monday's Senate vote on the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act marked a milestone for the bipartisan measure, which places a ceiling on single-family home acquisitions by large institutional investors, with the House set to take up the bill later this week ahead of its expected arrival at President Donald Trump's desk.
The bill was led by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina, and ranking member Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, along with House Financial Services Committee Chairman French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, and ranking member Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California. Trump has signaled support for the bill.
The 350-home ownership threshold defines which investors fall under the bill's institutional-investor category and triggers the purchasing restrictions. A sell-off requirement that had appeared in an earlier Senate-only draft — mandating that qualifying investors divest holdings above that threshold within seven years — was stripped out during negotiations between the two chambers, as members from both parties expressed concern it could undermine incentives to build new homes, according to CNBC.
"Never before has Congress put any restriction on the ability of private equity to move into whatever industry they want, buy up whatever they want and destroy whatever they want," Warren said. "This bill is historic because it puts a big fat 'no' right in front of private equity's growth as it tries to mow through our neighborhoods."
The bill reaches beyond the investor purchasing cap, targeting regulatory barriers to new construction, conditioning Community Development Block $SQ Grant dollars on local housing supply growth, and establishing a pilot grant program aimed at converting empty properties into livable units. The package also includes nine community banking bills, according to the Senate Banking Committee.
The bill's path to passage was not smooth. As Quartz previously reported on the bill's progress, an 87-8 procedural vote cleared the way for Senate floor debate, with all eight dissenting votes cast by Republican senators. House members had backed earlier versions of the legislation by wide margins — 390-9 in February and 396-13 in May.
"This bill is the result of years of work to lower costs, expand housing supply, cut red tape, protect taxpayers, and help more Americans achieve the dream of homeownership," Scott said in a statement. Hill said in a statement he looks forward to Trump signing the bill into law.
Warren called the legislation the biggest housing bill in more than 30 years in a statement.