U.S. HOUSING CRUNCH PUTS PRIVATE EQUITY IN MIDTERM CAMPAIGN CROSSHAIRS / THE FINANCIAL TIMES

US housing crunch puts private equity in midterm campaign crosshairs

FT analysis shows that institutional investors are being blamed for soaring costs

Michael Taffe in New York

New Hampshire Senate candidate Chris Pappas has backed legislation that would incentivise owners of manufactured home parks to sell to residents or non-profits rather than private sector landlords © CJ Gunther/Getty Images

Private equity has become an important target on the campaign trail for the US midterms as candidates blame large investors for soaring housing costs.

An FT analysis of campaign language in competitive congressional races over the past decade found that negative comments about private equity and corporate landlords have risen sharply in 2026, with their investments frequently being linked to rising prices. 

In previous election cycles, Wall Street and the banking sector were singled out for driving up the cost of living.

Chris Pappas, a moderate Democratic House member who won New Hampshire’s open Senate primary in September, is one of the candidates who is campaigning for stronger guardrails on where and how private capital can be invested.

“People are connecting the dots” of changes in ownership leading to higher rents, reduced maintenance and difficulty selling homes, he said.

Interest rates on US 30-year mortgages topped 7 per cent for the first time in almost two years this week.

Housing affordability is a central issue in the November elections, and institutional investment is blamed by many voters for the soaring prices.

More than two dozen candidates in competitive House and Senate races have pledged to restrict purchases or ownership by private equity firms, hedge funds and other institutional investors — more than double the level in any previous cycle.

Residents of mobile home parks told Pappas that increased rent and new income requirements imposed after their sites in New Hampshire were acquired by Michigan-based boutique real estate investor Sado Capital made it difficult to remain in place or even to sell their homes.

“Their home, which is essentially their life savings, has been eroded in value, and they’re forking over more every month just to be able to continue to live in their community,” he said.

Pappas said policymakers must address the “corporate private equity influence” that was making housing less affordable. 

He has backed legislation that would incentivise owners of manufactured home parks to sell to residents or non-profits rather than private sector landlords.

The push by institutional investors into low- and middle-income housing has raised the industry’s profile and led many households to blame private equity for the lack of affordable homes.

Shortly after Utah-based real estate investment firm Havenpark Capital acquired Golfview, the manufactured home park where Candi Evans lived in North Liberty, Iowa, the 71-year-old received a notice that her $285 ground rent would increase by $140 a month.

“I owned my home, so all I was renting was the dirt under my home,” Evans said.

She blames the increase on Havenpark’s model of buying manufactured home communities with outside investor capital and seeking to maximise their revenue.

“In order to get that projection fulfilled, they have to raise the rents,” she said.

In Iowa — one of 12 competitive Senate races — Republican nominee Ashley Hinson acknowledged that families were struggling to find affordable homes and that “massive institutional investors swooping in and outbidding families for starter homes only add to that frustration”.

Her Democratic opponent, Josh Turek, is pledging to ban “Wall Street private equity firms” from purchasing single-family homes and farmland and to crack down on private equity purchases of eldercare facilities and healthcare centres.

Adam Hamilton, the Democratic Senate candidate in an increasingly competitive midterm race in Kansas, has called for an investigation into “private equity consolidation in essential sectors including healthcare, housing and groceries”.

“As the industry has grown, the profile has grown,” said Will Dunham, chief executive of the American Investment Council, the industry’s main US trade group.

He added that the industry was “well known but not well understood” and said “the conflation of private equity with the entire for-profit economy could account for some of the uptick” in negative political attention.

Public scrutiny has already translated into federal policy. 

In January, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to limit large institutional investment in single-family homes, as well as to review their acquisitions for possible antitrust violations and prepare legislation to codify the policy.

In July, the Renewing Opportunity in the American Dream (Road) to Housing Act became law, barring investors in more than 350 single-family homes from buying more, although some construction projects are exempt and manufactured homes are excluded.

But the new restrictions target large institutional investors, while some of the companies drawing complaints from residents are more specialised real estate investors. 

Sado and Havenpark, for example, fall outside their scope.

The National Apartment Association, which represents rental housing owners and managers, is aware that a growing “portion of the political spectrum” was focusing on private investment, said Greg Brown, the group’s senior vice-president of government affairs.

But “if we really want to . . . to make sure there’s enough housing at all price points to meet the needs of Americans everywhere, you need to have institutional investors to do that”, he added.

Even Evans admits that not all investment is bad. 

Her mobile home park was eventually bought by a father and son who installed street lighting and agreed to automatically renewable leases with protections from eviction.

“You can do this and still make money and treat people decent,” she said.