https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/business/built-to-rent-investors-trump.html
Trump Decries a ‘Nation of Renters’ but His New Policy Promotes One
President Trump’s recently announced executive order that would bar big investors from acquiring single-family homes includes an exemption that allows them to build homes for rent.
By Matthew Goldstein, The New York Times, Feb. 11, 2026
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Buried in Mr. Trump’s recently announced executive order that seeks to bar large investors from acquiring single-family homes is an exemption that allows them to build homes for renting out.
These build-to-rent housing communities are a growing niche of the market and involve some of the same Wall Street landlords that Mr. Trump has blamed for preventing average Americans from owning their own homes.
In recent years, private equity firms like Blackstone have been building new subdivisions of single-family houses that are all for rent. Large home-building companies like Lennar and D.R. Horton have also gotten into the business, building single-family homes dedicated as rentals. …
Housing analysts say, from a policy perspective, build-to-rent communities make sense because they are improving the availability of quality rental housing… Build-to-rent deals provided a “built-in hedge” for builders. The ability of a homebuilder to presell a significant number of rental homes in a given development to a large institutional buyer gives the builder comfort to build more homes than it normally might… [end quote]
The Trump executive order hasn’t come into effect yet because it’s aimed at large institutional buyers (not mom-and-pop who own a few rental homes) which haven’t been clearly defined yet.
Today’s existing homes are so expensive that private equity isn’t buying. It’s more cost-effective to build new homes in entire subdivisions.
This is the free market moving in the right direction. More housing is being built. Families who can’t afford to buy will have new homes to rent.
Wendy