Updated 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Advances Through House: Potential Impact on Institutional Investment in Housing and What’s Next?

Overview

On May 20, 2026, the House of Representatives (the “House”) passed a new version of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (the “House Bill”) by a vote of 396–13. The House Bill is the House’s response to the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act passed by the Senate in March (the “Senate Bill”; together with the House Bill, the “ROAD to Housing Act”), which Goodwin summarized in a prior client alert. The ROAD to Housing Act represents one of the most sweeping housing reform initiatives in decades.

While a variety of policy initiatives are addressed in the ROAD to Housing Act (including community banking and central bank digital currency), our prior client alert focused on the policy initiative related to institutional ownership of single-family housing that is of particular importance for the institutional real estate investor community. This policy initiative was added to the Senate Bill in response to Executive Order 14376 (“Stopping Wall Street from Competing with Main Street Homebuyers”) issued by President Trump earlier this year, which directed various cabinet departments to issue guidance aimed at: (1) preventing agencies and government-sponsored enterprises from facilitating the acquisition of single-family homes by large institutional investors; (2) preventing federal assets from being disposed of in a manner that transfers single-family homes to large institutional investors; and (3) promoting sales of single-family homes to individual owner-occupants.

Key Similarities Between House Bill and Senate Bill

The House Bill addresses this policy initiative in Title X, “Homeownership for Main Street America.” The language in Section 1001 of the House Bill largely tracks the language in the Senate Bill in many material respects, including (i) a prohibition on any large institutional investor purchasing or entering into a contract to directly or indirectly purchase any single-family home unless subject to an exception; (ii) consistent definitions of “large institutional investor,” “single-family home,” and “purchase”; and (iii) the same categories of “excepted purchases.” Please see Goodwin’s prior client alert for a summary of these definitions and categories of excepted purchases.

The House Bill retains the same penalties and effective period as set forth in the Senate Bill, as follows:

• Large institutional investors that violate the provisions of Section 1001 would be subject to a civil penalty equal to the greater of up to $1,000,000 per violation or three times the purchase price per violation.
• If ultimately signed into law, Section 1001 would take effect 180 days after the date of enactment. Section 1001 also includes a sunset provision, which holds that the prohibitions and requirements under the House Bill are set to be repealed 15 years after the effective date.

Key Distinctions Between House Bill and Senate Bill

The House Bill does differ from the Senate Bill in a few significant ways:

• The House Bill does not contain the requirement that institutional investors dispose of single-family homes purchased under certain excepted purchases within seven years of the date of the purchase. This disposition requirement was one of the more controversial sections of the Senate Bill and had garnered significant pushback from industry participants and members of the House.
• The House Bill establishes a renter outreach resource that will require, within 180 days of enactment, establishment of a toll-free telephone number and public website designed to provide renters of residential properties owned by large institutional investors a forum to notify federal agencies of disputes with their landlords and will require such federal agencies to investigate, monitor, and seek to resolve such disputes. Large institutional investors will be required to notify renters of this resource and feature information about the renter outreach resource on their public website. Aggregated and anonymized data regarding these disputes will be publicly reported to Congress on an annual basis.
• The House Bill also requires large institutional investors to notify the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development no later than December 31 each year how many single-family homes the large institutional investor has direct or indirect investment control of and the city and state where each single-family home is located for cities where the large institutional investor owns more than 10 single-family homes.

Next Steps

To become effective, the House Bill would need to be approved by the Senate and then signed by the president. It is unclear how the Senate will approach the House Bill, with potential options including (i) the Senate passing the House Bill in its current form, (ii) formation of a conference committee to resolve differences between the House Bill and the Senate Bill to prepare a resolved version that would need to be passed by both the House and the Senate, (iii) the Senate modifying the House Bill and returning it to the House for approval, or (iv) the Senate not voting on the House Bill.

While the removal of the seven-year disposition requirement would address some concerns from the industry regarding hold period and exit options, the ROAD to Housing Act’s general prohibition on purchases other than excepted purchases is still expected to, if enacted into law, fundamentally alter the investment thesis for many institutional players. In addition, the passage of a competing version of the ROAD to Housing Act by the House continues to create uncertainty for the industry that is affecting many investors’ — and their lenders’ — current investment decisions. Finally, the House Bill would impose additional oversight over, and administrative burdens on, industry participants that qualify as large institutional investors.

Industry participants should continue to closely monitor the ROAD to Housing Act as it progresses through the legislative process and consider its potential impacts. Involvement with industry groups and proactive outreach to lawmakers may be prudent. Please contact the Goodwin team with any questions related to the ROAD to Housing Act or other information in this client alert.