Institutional investors who own large swaths of rental homes becoming political target

Institutional investors who vacuumed up single family homes when prices cratered after the Great Recession are drawing more political heat as renters complain about the impact U S Sen Jon Ossoff of Georgia publicized Wednesday that he is launching inquiries with several of the top companies in the sector following a congressional hearing last year when tenants complained about roach infestations water-damaged ceilings and sewage leaking into showers The Democrat s announcement came after Republican Gov Brian Kemp disclosed Monday that he will not seek to unseat Ossoff triggering speculation about who the GOP primary candidates will be for next year s balloting State Republican lawmakers have also targeted the housing industry illustrating the political traction of the issue Last month lawmakers sent Kemp bipartisan law that would require tenants of houses or duplexes to give code enforcement officers contact information for their property manager Rep Mary Margaret Oliver D-Decatur the chief co-sponsor of House Bill mentioned it would require out-of-state investors such as hedge funds to have a local broker and a local property manager A more aggressive bill that sought to cap each big owner at properties didn t get far after constitutional concerns were raised by former state Attorney General Sam Olens who testified for the industry Seven corporations own more than single-family homes in the -county metro-Atlanta region according to a blog by the Atlanta Regional Commission late last year Metro Atlanta was the top region nationally for this commitment activity with of the single-family home rentals homes consolidated in the hands of large investors in the U S Administration Accountability Office GAO announced last year The recession forced multiple homeowners into foreclosure flooding the realm with cheap housing Institutional investors such as publicly traded real estate expenditure trusts leveraged their access to capital to buy them at scale Algorithms allowed investors to identify desirable properties while online management portals allowed them to attract tenants and efficiently manage geographically dispersed portfolios the GAO statement explained It noted a description by one organization that reported the difficulty in scaling the acquisition and management of properties before the advent of this innovation was the primary reason large-scale stake in single-family housing did not develop sooner The post Institutional investors who own large swaths of rental homes becoming political target appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta