Leading US investors and private equity firms could step up their foray into UK new-build housing after Donald Trump’s move to ban institutional companies from buying single-family homes in the US, raising concerns that investors could “cut corners and increase rents”.
The US president said last week that he would ask Congress to codify the measure as he tries to address concerns that families are struggling to buy or rent a home. The median property sale price was $410,800 (£305,000) last year, according to the US Census Bureau.
Analysts have predicted the ban could prompt large US investors, including Madame Tussauds owner Blackstone, to double down on Britain’s property market.
While corporate investors insist they want to provide good-quality, well-managed housing, expectations that they would seek increased profits from rents could put them at odds with tenants.
“Major investors and private equity have no place in the UK housing market,” said Ruth Gilbert, spokesperson for Living Rent, Scotland’s tenants union.
She added: “A dependence on investment firms and private equity landlords over good-quality, publicly owned housing will only exacerbate this housing crisis, as they cut corners and increase rents, forcing people out of their homes to satisfy shareholders’ dividends.”
Gilbert called on Westminster and devolved UK governments to work together on a “mass programme of public housing”.
Jae Vail, spokesperson for the London Renters Union, said: “While millions of us struggle to pay our rent or live in unsafe temporary accommodation, overseas investors chase short-term profits with expensive build-to-rent developments that price out local people.
“We need long-term investment in council homes and rent controls to bring down housing costs for all.”
Since the surge in home foreclosures after the 2008 financial crisis, big institutional investors such as Blackstone and other private equity firms have acquired tens of thousands of homes in the US to rent them out. They have become large landlords, often competing with homebuyers, and have been blamed by politicians and tenants’ unions for pushing up the cost of renting and buying homes. Analysts say that to make housing more affordable, more homes need to be built.
In the UK, investors tend to buy multiple homes in new developments, rather than existing homes. Marcus Dixon, UK head of living and residential research at the property group Jones Lang LaSalle, said institutional investors buying existing homes are more likely to be buying entire rental portfolios, rather than buying homes from owner occupiers.
“The policies of successive governments have disincentivised small buy-to-let landlords in favour of larger institutional investors, meaning a similar ban in the UK appears unlikely,” he said.
“Conversely, the ban in the US could drive activity in the UK. With a number of US investors already active in the UK market, they could divert funds here instead.”
Investors and private equity firms already in the UK market include Blackstone, California’s Kennedy Wilson, New York-based KKR and Chicago-based Nuveen, which has $1.4tn funds under management.
Blackstone, a New York-based asset manager with more than $1tn under management, has been buying up a huge array of properties globally, ranging from hotels and offices to student housing, warehouses and rental homes. Its real estate arm manages assets worth $320bn (£240bn).
Blackstone said: “As is widely documented, building more homes is the only sustainable way to improve housing availability and affordability. In the UK, Blackstone’s investment has supported the creation of more than 20,000 new affordable homes since 2017 making our portfolio company, Sage Homes, the largest provider of newly built affordable homes in the UK.”
KKR, Kennedy Wilson and Nuveen declined to comment.
Blackstone’s better-known assets in the UK include Madame Tussauds, the London Dungeon, Legoland Windsor and Sea Life aquariums.
In the housing arena, two Blackstone-backed providers, Leaf Living and Sage Homes, partnered with the UK housebuilder Vistry Group in an £819m deal in late 2023 to acquire about 2,900 new homes. Blackstone has discussed the sale of Leaf with bankers, according to Bloomberg.
While Sage, which provides homes for affordable rent or shared ownership, lists glowing testimonials on its website, not all tenants are happy.
A year ago, Sage said it was “extremely sorry” for service failings, after the housing ombudsman found the landlord failed to adequately address the concerns of 18 residents, including a disabled resident with mental health issues. Sage said it had carried out significant changes including bringing all housing management services in-house.
In Spain, Blackstone had become the largest private landlord by 2019, but last year began offloading residential assets in Barcelona citing legal uncertainty and stricter rental regulations. It has not acquired additional homes in Europe since 2021.
Entering the UK in 2024, Kennedy Wilson and Canada’s CPP Investments teamed up and its venture invested £213m across several deals that will deliver 900 rental homes, from three housebuilders across seven development sites.
Institutional investors own 0.5% of all single-family homes in the US, and purchases have declined by 90% since 2022, Blackstone said.
In the UK, just 0.2% of privately rented homes are operated by investors, a figure that rises to 0.4% when including developments under construction, according to the property company Knight Frank.
Knight Frank said in a report last April that the UK’s single-family housing market had “emerged a compelling proposition for institutional investors”.