Big Take Trump’s Latest Target: Corporate Landlords
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Jan 15, 2026 Patrick Clark, a Bloomberg real estate reporter, and Kriston Capps, a CityLab reporter, dive into the heated debate over corporate landlords. They discuss how large investors, like private equity firms, have shaped the housing market since the 2008 crisis. The duo reveals the local impact of these investors, particularly in cities like Atlanta and Charlotte. They also explore Trump's surprising proposal to ban corporate homebuying, the challenges faced by average buyers, and whether such a ban would truly address the affordability crisis.
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Wall Street Filled The Foreclosure Void
- Large institutional investors began buying single-family homes after the 2008 crisis and scaled rapidly into rentals.
- That shift created a new class of corporate landlords who now shape parts of local housing markets.
Scale Is Big But Share Is Small
- By 2021 large firms owned nearly 400,000 single-family rentals, but that's a small share of the total stock.
- Institutional owners hold roughly 3–4% of rental homes and under 1% of total single-family housing.
Local Hotspots Amplify Impact
- Institutional ownership is highly concentrated in some metros, making local impacts much larger.
- In metro Atlanta more than 30% of single-family rentals are owned by large corporations, an outsized local footprint.