Warnock Housing Measure Becomes Law, Restricting Corporate Home Purchases

Georgia’s housing affordability crisis could soon look different after a new federal law placed limits on how large private equity firms can expand their single-family home portfolios.

The bipartisan legislation includes a provision championed by Sen. Raphael Warnock that prohibits major private equity firms from purchasing additional single-family homes. The measure became law after President Donald Trump neither signed nor vetoed the bill within the constitutional 10-day window while Congress remained in session.

The restriction is part of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a sweeping housing package that also seeks to increase the nation’s housing supply, modernize the home appraisal process, strengthen rural housing programs and encourage local governments to build more homes.

Warnock said the legislation responds to concerns he has heard from Georgians struggling to find affordable housing.

“I hear from Georgians across the state who have been clamoring for action from Washington on the affordable housing crisis, and this legislation is proof that when we center the people instead of the politics, we can get good policy done,” he said in a statement.

The new law comes after years of debate over the growing influence of institutional investors in Georgia’s housing market. In metro Atlanta, corporate investors own more than 72,000 single-family rental homes, representing more than one-quarter of the region’s rental housing stock.

Critics say those companies have made it more difficult for families to buy homes by submitting cash offers that many individual buyers cannot match. Warnock has argued that the growing corporate presence has shifted the housing market away from homeownership and toward investment profits.

In addition to limiting future acquisitions by large private equity firms, the legislation offers incentives for new housing construction, reduces barriers to development, expands grants and forgivable loans for home repairs and weatherization, and updates several long-standing federal housing programs. It also incorporates Warnock’s Appraisal Modernization Act, which supporters say will improve fairness in the appraisal process.

Supporters say the measure represents a broad federal effort to improve housing affordability by expanding housing opportunities and reducing the influence of large institutional investors in the single-family home market.