'The Last Thing Americans Need Is A Bezos-Backed Investment Company Further Consolidating Single-Family Homes' — US Rep. Ro Khanna Says, Housing Should Not Be 'A Speculative Commodity'

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) posted on X earlier this month to gain support for his Stop Wall Street Landlords Act bill.

"The last thing Americans need is a Bezos-backed investment company further consolidating single-family homes and putting homeownership out of reach for more and more people,"  he posted on X. "Housing should be a right, not a speculative commodity. Congress must pass my Stop Wall Street Landlords Act."

The post was in response to an article published two days earlier about a new single-family residential fund launched by Arrived, a real estate investment platform backed by Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos. 

If passed by Congress, the Stop Wall Street Landlords Act would impose a tax on existing and new acquisitions of single-family rentals by institutional investors. It would also prohibit Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae from purchasing and securitizing mortgages held by large institutional investors who use debt to buy single-family homes and rent them out.

“The financialization of the housing market by Wall Street exacerbates corporate profiteering and anti-competitive practices that make it harder for Americans to afford housing or access homeownership,” Khanna said in a press release about the proposed act. 

Related: Homeownership may be out of reach for most Americans, but that’s not stopping these average investors from raking in passive income with single-family rentals through fractional ownership.

The Bezos-backed investment company Khanna referred to in his X post is far from the "Wall Street landlords" that have been called out in recent years for their role in the country’s current housing shortage.

Arrived Co-Founder Alejandro Chouza replied to the Congressman’s post saying, "As co-founder of @arrivedhomes, I agree homeownership is out of reach for most, which is why we created Arrived — to help anyone own property for as little as $100. Investors on Arrived aren’t billionaires; they’re just folks who want the same security & wealth homeowners enjoy."

The Seattle-based startup has reached some impressive milestones, considering its properties are completely funded by retail investors putting up as little as $100. Arrived has funded around 390 homes with a total value of roughly $122 million.

In contrast, many of the true "Wall Street landlords" have tens of thousands of properties in their portfolios. Invitation Homes Inc. INVH, with a market cap of $20.68 billion, owns over 80,000 single-family rental homes across the U.S.

Another housing giant, American Homes 4 Rent AMH, boasts a portfolio of over 59,000 single-family rentals and a market cap of $12.99 billion. Blackstone’s Home Partners has acquired over 28,000 residential properties.

While Arrived received backing from the world’s third-richest person, the investment from Bezos helped fund the platform and the infrastructure that’s giving retail investors the ability to own income-producing properties. The homes on the platform have been funded by average people, not private equity behemoths.

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