President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the administration will consider overhauling the tax code’s depreciation rules to remove advantages that large institutional investors might have over families in buying houses.
Trump, speaking at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, discussed the White House’s push to ban institutional investors from purchasing single-family homes. Trump signed an executive order the night before aimed at doing just that, but during the speech mentioned the rules around depreciation, which were not mentioned in the order.
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Trump pointed out that institutional investors such as Blackstone have purchased hundreds of thousands of homes across the country and then act as landlords, renting them out. Corporations and landlords can buy a home as a rental or investment property and claim depreciation, but single-family homebuyers cannot. In other words, institutional investors can subtract the costs of upgrades from the calculation of their taxable earnings.
“You know, the crazy thing is, a person can’t get depreciation on a house, but when a corporation buys it, they get depreciation,” Trump told the crowd at Davos. “OK, that’s something we’re going to have to think about too.”
“I don’t know if too many people think about that … a corporation, they buy 500 houses, they buy hundreds of thousands, they buy 500 houses, they can take depreciation — a person sweats and works and buys one house, they can’t,” the president added.
When contacted about the comments on depreciation, White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Washington Examiner that the administration is “exploring every tool possible” on the housing front.
“President Trump pledged to improve housing affordability for Americans still reeling from [former President] Joe Biden’s economic disaster, and the Administration is committed to exploring every tool possible to deliver for the American people,” he said in a statement. “That’s why President Trump signed an Executive Order aiming to protect single family homebuyers from large institutional investors and help them achieve the American Dream of homeownership.”
The White House announced the executive order targeting institutional investors on Tuesday night. The order compels government agencies to issue guidance preventing the sale of single-family homes to institutional investors and directs the Treasury Department to review rules and guidance relating to institutional investors acquiring or holding single-family homes.
The exact details of the plan, such as thresholds of what constitutes a large institutional investor, are still forthcoming. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently said the administration hasn’t settled on the “exact contours” of the move, but indicated there would be no plans to force institutional investors into retroactive sales.
Still, while some argue that companies such as Blackstone are gobbling up real estate and making housing less affordable, institutional investors, those who own 100 or more homes, have purchased less than 2% of all homes.
The move is part of a broader affordability push by the Trump administration as surveys continue to show consumers struggling with cost-of-living issues and with a housing market that has priced many people out of homeownership.
The administration directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase $200 billion in mortgage bonds, aiming to lower mortgage rates and increase homeownership affordability for consumers.
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On the affordability front, Trump has also proposed capping credit card rates at 10% for one year, a proposal that has been met with pushback from free-market advocates.
“I’m asking Congress to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for one year, and this will help millions of Americans save for a home,” Trump said at Davos.