Trade Groups Raise Alarms Over 21st Century Road To Housing Act Before Senate Floor Vote

Housing and real estate trade groups are urging lawmakers to revise several provisions in the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, which is scheduled for a vote on the Senate floor.

Industry concerns focus on the bill’s build-to-rent (BTR) provision that require institutional investors to sell newly constructed BTR homes within a set time frame, drafting errors in the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)’s multifamily loan limit section, and a requirement that mortgage servicers provide foreclosure mitigation counseling for all government-backed loans with 30-days delinquencies.

The bipartisan bill combines the House-passed Housing for the 21st Century Act (H.R. 6644) with the Senate’s ROAD to Housing Act (S. 2651), which was adopted as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026. The package includes 18 provisions from the House and Senate bills, and at least 26 sections drawn from previously introduced bipartisan legislation.

The bill, which also reflects priorities of the Trump administration, is scheduled for consideration on the Senate floor Thursday.

“While the package is largely positive, MBA and its members have significant concerns with several amended provisions that could produce unintended consequences and reduce housing supply,” Bill Killmer, senior vice president of legislative and political affairs at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) said in a letter sent Wednesday to Senate banking committee Chair Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

In the FHA space, the negotiated language contains drafting errors that would require FHA to “actually decrease the loan limits to levels below those calculated by HUD staff under current law authorities,” the MBA said. The change could constrain capital for new rental housing development and limit financing for build-for-rent and built-to-rent housing communities.

MBA also warned that lender costs could rise if an amendment to FHA’s Informed Consumer Choice Disclosure — which provides a price comparison between FHA and GSE mortgage products — is expanded to include the VA home loan program. 

Costs could also rise if servicers are required to offer foreclosure mitigation counseling for all government-backed loans once they become 30 days delinquent, which the group said could also pose risks to FHA’s Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund.

Meanwhile, a coalition of 12 housing and real estate organizations said in a letter to the Senate on Tuesday that language requiring institutional investors to sell newly constructed BTR homes would discourage investment and reduce the construction of new rental housing.

The provision could remove hundreds of thousands of housing units from the market over the next decade and force the displacement of thousands of renters each year, the groups warned.

“The 7-year disposition requirement will effectively shut down BTR development, leading to less supply and fewer options for renters,” the letter states. “BTR is underwritten, financed and constructed as multifamily housing. It is not possible to sell individual units as single family homes, which is what the Senate proposal would require. Selling off BTR homes would require the entire loan to be paid off at the same time.”