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3/26/2026
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Bill aims to prevent private equity from buying up R.I. housing
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STATE HOUSE – Rhode Island is still digging out from the disastrous effects of a private equity takeover of Roger Williams and Fatima hospitals, which were saved from closure by a sale last month to a nonprofit, backstopped with state funding.
Sen. Meghan E. Kallman and Rep. Michelle McGaw want to protect Rhode Island’s fragile housing market from a similar fate.
The two lawmakers are sponsoring legislation aimed at preventing private equity firms from buying up large swaths of the state’s housing, as they have in some other parts of the country. The bill (2026-S 2902, 2026-H 8102) would prohibit a legal entity, other than an individual, that owns more than $25 million in real estate from owning single- or multi-family properties.
“The whole purpose of private equity investments is to extract profit. Here in Rhode Island, where our lack of supply has driven both home prices and rents sky-high, we can’t afford to have families competing with deep-pocketed investment firms for the few homes that are available, nor can we afford to have them maximizing profits from Rhode Island renters. We are already in a very serious housing crisis, and we should prevent it from being made any worse by a corporate takeover of private homes,” said Senator Kallman (D-Dist. 15, Pawtucket, Providence).
Said Representative McGaw (D-Dist. 71, Portsmouth, Tiverton, Little Compton), “Rhode Island has already seen what happens when private equity firms take over our nursing homes, our hospitals and our businesses: they are gutted for profit, without any regard for the effects on the community. That’s bad enough when it’s your local store. When it’s something vital to life, such as your health care or your housing, it’s completely unacceptable. We can and should be proactive about this in Rhode Island so we don’t find ourselves with yet another factor contributing to our housing crisis.”
Toward the end of the recession that began in 2008, a handful of private equity firms began buying up single-family housing at foreclosure auctions and turning them into rentals. The practice has continued and evolved since then, and now private equity firms own significant shares of the rental units in some markets. Since many of the homes they purchase are the less-expensive homes that are sought by first-time homebuyers, and they can afford to offer more than most households that are trying to enter homeownership, they are reducing the supply of affordable homes for sale, pushing homeownership yet further out of reach for many.
So far, the trend has centered on other states, including Texas, Florida, California, Georgia, and North Carolina, and Senator Kallman and Representative McGaw say they hope for passage of their bill to keep it from expanding into Rhode Island.
The idea for the legislation came from a constituent of Senate President Valarie J. Lawson (D-Dist. 14, East Providence), who was involved in the drafting of the bill.
“At a time when state leaders are working very hard to help families afford their homes, there simply is no place for profit-driven corporate ownership and private equity in Rhode Island’s housing market. We need Rhode Islanders to own Rhode Island homes,” said President Lawson.
Under the legislation, if any entity with more than $25 million in real estate holding possesses single-family or multi-family units at the time the law is passed, it would be required to divest itself from those homes, reducing its holdings of those dwellings by a minimum of 10% each year over the next decade. Each violation would be subject to a fine of up to $10,000.
The prohibition would not apply to affordable housing nonprofits, community land trusts or public housing agencies.
The bills have been assigned to the Housing and Municipal Government Committee in the Senate, and the House Judiciary Committee, which has scheduled a hearing on it this afternoon.
For more information, contact:
Meredyth R. Whitty, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401) 222-1923
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