Maybe *all* rental housing should be owned by large institutional investors

A much better idea than the opposite!

Corporate landlords buy only a tiny sliver of American homes. (Photo by Zoran Jesic)

I keep threatening to write an article arguing that only large corporate landlords should be allowed to own single-family homes.

Unfortunately, I can’t come up with any “good” “reasons” for such a rule. But I can definitely come up with a better case for this trolling than for the current passion for banning large corporate landlords that’s gaining momentum in the political system.

Like any halfway normal person, I shop at both large chain stores and small independent shops. I dine at locally owned restaurants and also at chains. I stay in chain hotels and also in independent ones. I personally earn a living by operating a family-owned media business. I cherish independent media and small-scale publishing, and I read the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

There is real value in independence and also real value in scale, so it’s good to have a mix of business models. There’s no particular reason that public policy should ban one or the other.

But if for some crazy reason you had to choose between a world where the only media was small-scale Substacks and a world where the only media was large outlets with more than 1,000 journalists, you’d be better off in the latter.