Atlanta Suburbs are Legislating Against Corporate Landlords

Local governments in the Atlanta area are legislating against corporate landlords as part of a growing call to regulate real estate investment that critics say drive up the cost of housing for everyday buyers and renters.

As Michael Sasso and Kriston Capps explain in Bloomberg CityLab, institutional investors hold just around 3 percent of residential properties nationwide. But their concentration in some markets, where these properties make up as much as 50 percent of homes, makes them a problem. “A 2023 study by Brian An of the Georgia Institute of Technology looked at the Atlanta area specifically, finding that heavy investor purchases led to the loss of $4.9 billion in home equity – more than two-thirds of it among Black households.” 

In Paulding, County, Georgia, local leaders called for a 180-day moratorium on new build-to-rent subdivisions in 2021, adding some exceptions later. But overall, bans on investor-owned rentals are rare. “Some communities have tried a quota-based approach. North of Atlanta, the affluent town of Alpharetta aims to have at least 68% of housing owner-occupied.” At the state level, 19 republican senators introduced a bill that would prevent businesses from buying an interest in more than 500 residential units.  After President Trump’s purported attack on institutional investors, action could come from the federal level too.