Banking and Finance Law Daily Wrap Up, OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATION—Warren queries corporate landlords on ‘predatory’ rental practices, (Mar 30, 2026)

By Jeff Williams

The senator said institutional investors are driving up costs for consumers.

Saying that the U.S. is "facing a housing crisis with skyrocketing costs and a severe shortage of affordable housing supply,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, has sent letters to 14 companies with large holdings in the single-family, multifamily, and manufactured housing rental sectors asking them to provide information about their real estate portfolios, business practices, consumer complaints against them, and any communications they have had with the Trump administration regarding the role of institutional investors in the housing market.

"Wall Street and giant corporate landlords are making the crisis worse by gobbling up homes and apartment complexes, jacking up housing costs across the country, and using aggressive and discriminatory tactics to push up profits at the expense of families,” Warren said in nearly letters to American Homes 4 Rent, Blackstone, FirstKey Homes, Greystar, Homes of America, Horizon Land Co., Impact Communities, Invitation Homes, MAA, Progress Residential, RHP Properties, Starwood Capital, Tricon, and Yes! Communities.

Warren sent the letters on the heels of the Senate passing the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act that she introduced with Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.), which would restrict large institutional investors from buying single-family homes.

“Allowing private equity firms and other large institutional investors to snatch up thousands of homes can make it impossible for individuals and families to buy their own home—which is why the Senate-passed 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act includes restrictions on large institutional investors’ ownership of single-family housing units."

That measure is an “important first step to address the role of private equity and other large institutional investors in single-family housing, but there is still more to be done to lower housing costs and tackle predatory practices by large institutional investors in the housing sector,” Warren said.

The senator cited data showing that large institutional investors also “play a major role” in the multi-family and manufactured housing markets, having acquired approximately 10 percent of the multifamily market and the majority of manufactured housing communities. “Institutional investor ownership of manufactured housing has resulted in increased costs and rents,” she said, adding: “Abusive practices by institutional investors in multifamily housing have also driven up costs for some renters.”

Data Request. Among the numerous inquiries in the letter, Warren asked each of the companies to provide data about how many single-family, multifamily, and manufactured units they or their affiliates own, the size of each unit, and where those properties are located.

Warren also directed the companies to specify, for each year between 2020 and 2025, the median gross rents they charged, what their vacancy rates were, how many eviction proceedings were filed and completed, and how many maintenance requests and complaints were filed by residents. The senator also asked for data about the share of renters each company has that have federal rental assistance, the share of renters who later purchased a home they had rented as part of a rent-to-own agreement.

Warren also inquired whether the companies have had any communications with Trump administration officials, “including but not limited to the President, his Cabinet members, political appointees, individuals employed by the White House, the Department of Treasury, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, regarding the role of institutional investors in the single-family, multifamily, and manufactured housing sectors,” along with the dates of any such communications, who participated, and an summary of the contents of such communications.

Warren asked the companies to respond by April 8.

Companies: American Homes 4 Rent; Blackstone; FirstKey Homes; Greystar; Homes of America; Horizon Land Co.; Impact Communities; Invitation Homes; MAA; Progress Residential; RHP Properties; Starwood Capital; Tricon; Yes! Communities

LegislativeActivity: CommunityDevelopment FinancialStability OversightInvestigations UDAAP