Banning Institutional Investors Backfires

A national or local ban on institutional ownership of single‑family homes would remove a small but professionally managed slice of rental supply, likely harming current renters—many of whom seek access to higher‑quality schools—and would do little to boost homeownership rates because institutional ownership is a tiny share of stock and the binding constraints are supply and financing. Policymakers should target supply‑side bottlenecks and local affordability measures rather than blunt ownership bans. — This reframes a populist policy proposal into a concrete trade‑off with measurable distributional harms for renters and negligible gains for aspiring owners, forcing better‑targeted housing reforms.