A New Federal Limit on Institutional Single-Family Home Ownership

On July 11, 2026, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (H.R. 6644) became law after the 10-day presentment window lapsed without the President's signature. Widely described as the most significant federal housing package in a generation, the Act is broad, but one provision is directly relevant to ADISA members: it establishes the first broad federal restriction on institutional ownership of single-family homes. For members operating single-family rental (SFR) and build-to-rent (BTR) strategies, here is what changed and what to watch.

What Passed
H.R. 6644 is a bipartisan, bicameral housing bill. The Senate passed the final text 85–5 on June 22 and the House passed it 358–32 on June 23; it was presented to the President on June 29 and became law without signature on July 11. The provision that matters most to our members is Title X, Section 1001 — "Homes are for people, not corporations."

What It Restricts
"No covered large institutional investor may purchase, or enter into a contract to directly or indirectly purchase, any covered single-family home."

Key parameters:

• Who is covered: a for-profit entity with direct or indirect investment control of 350 or more single-family homes (raised during negotiations from an earlier proposed threshold of 100).
• What counts as a single-family home: a structure with two or fewer dwelling units for a single household — this includes duplexes and excludes manufactured homes.
• Prospective only: the law restricts new purchases and does not require divestiture of homes already owned.
• Timing: takes effect 180 days after enactment and is repealed 15 years after the effective date.
• Penalties: civil penalties up to $1 million per violation, or three times the purchase price, whichever is greater.

What's Carved Out
The prohibition includes eleven enumerated exceptions. The most consequential for our membership:

• Build-to-rent (BTR) is protected. BTR communities qualify as an excepted purchase. Notably, the final bill eliminated the earlier 7-year forced-disposal requirement and removed the renter "first look" and right-of-first-refusal provisions from the BTR exception — so BTR can be held for the intended investment horizon.
• Foreclosure and lending activity. Acquisitions by mortgage servicers, lenders, or others through foreclosure, deed-in-lieu, or enforcement of a security interest are excluded from the prohibition.

New Compliance Obligations
These apply to covered investors regardless of whether any new purchases are made:

• Annual notification to Treasury of large-institutional-investor status, including the number and location of single-family homes under investment control.
• Renter outreach notice. HUD will establish a toll-free line and website for renter disputes; covered investors must give renters annual written notice of the resource.

What Happens Next
The prohibition does not bite until 180 days after enactment, and much of the detail will be shaped by rulemaking. Treasury — in consultation with HUD, FHFA, and the SEC — will issue implementing regulations, including rules intended to minimize market disruption. Several things are worth paying attention to, and that we will be tracking, as these rules develop:

• Whether the two-or-fewer-unit definition inadvertently sweeps in certain attached or small-unit products.
• How the "alone or in concert with other entities" investment-control language applies to lenders on BTR product and to CMBS special servicers.
• The scope of the excepted-purchase categories and how Treasury exercises its market-disruption authority.

ADISA ANNUAL CONFERENCE
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October 5-7, 2026  ·  The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

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