Ownership of Single-family Residential Property by Business Entities: Prohibits certain business entities from purchasing, acquiring, or otherwise obtaining certain property & subsequently leasing or renting such property; specifies that certain sellers are not liable for certain violations; authorizes Attorney General to bring civil action; provides remedies.

Why I Filed This Bill (by Representative Joseph): If you live in Florida, I don’t need to tell you that we have been experiencing an affordability crisis for quite some time. 2.1 million Floridians pay more than 30% of their income towards housing, and half of those individuals pay more than 50%. Exacerbating this crisis nationwide are hedge funds and private equity firms, which have been buying up homes that would otherwise be available to households, creating an artificial scarcity in real estate. This bill simply caps the number of properties to 100, thereby stopping corporate landlords from driving up home purchase and rent prices, which forces families out of their communities. By limiting the amount of housing supply big corporations and other institutional investors can hoard, this bill frees up supply for working families, seniors, and small investors. And when the housing stock cannot be controlled by faraway corporations with no vested interest in the local communities, this bill minimizes their ability to engage in corporate price fixing, which uses artificial intelligence and algorithms to price-gouge and raise rents for everyone. Contrary to claims by Private Equity VPs, the rising rents have nothing to do with hardworking immigrants anywhere.