House Passes Bipartisan Housing Bill Targeting Corporate Investors and Easing Regulations

The House passed a bipartisan housing bill on Wednesday with a 396-13 vote. The legislation encourages home construction nationwide and bars corporate landlords that already own more than 350 houses from buying additional single-family homes. The measure is an amended version of a bill the Senate passed two months earlier.

The two chambers must reconcile differences before sending the final text to President Trump for signature.

The House version prohibits groups owning more than 350 single-family homes from purchasing additional houses for rental use. National data show these investors account for about 3 percent of the single-family rental market, though their share is higher in some Sun Belt cities.

The bill removes earlier provisions that would have required large landlords to sell build-to-rent homes after seven years. It also eliminates several exceptions that had been proposed for homes owned less than a year or previously used only as rentals.

The legislation eases rules for factory-built homes by removing the requirement for a permanent chassis. It also streamlines environmental reviews for homes built in gaps between existing structures and creates a grant program for communities to develop preapproved housing design pattern books.

President Trump had urged House Republicans to support the unamended Senate version but has not commented on the changes made in the House. The bill now returns to the Senate for final consideration.