President Donald Trump wants to bar major investors from purchasing homes, as a housing shortage pushes home prices further out of reach for many Americans.
"I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to codify it," Trump said in a social media post. "People live in homes, not corporations."
He said he would further elaborate on the proposal at a speech in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, the annual gathering of chief executives, foreign leaders, and ultra-wealthy figures. No details were provided on how the ban would work and when it would kick in.
Private equity giants and real estate investment trusts have led the way in amassing single-family rental homes in recent years, and Trump's measure could hit their interests hard. Among the major institutional players is Blackstone, the largest private-equity owner of apartments in the U.S. A report from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project last year showed Blackstone owned nearly 231,000 apartment units. Over half of the properties were acquired since 2021.
Notably, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman has cultivated close ties to the president. He helped broker a deal between Trump and Harvard University that ended a months-long pressure campaign to overhaul its admissions policy and more.
On Wednesday afternoon, Blackstone shares fell about 5% after the president's social media post. Blackstone did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The average sales price for an existing single-family home in the U.S. was $414,300 in November 2025, according to the National Association of Realtors.