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Housing Bill Expected to Become Law; SFR and BTR Provision Included

June 23, 2026

After months of back and forth, the revised 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (H.R. 6644) passed the Senate yesterday by a vote of 85-5, and the House is expected to pass the bill today. 

• President Trump will likely sign the bill into law as soon as Wednesday. 
• To read the bill text, click here. To read the section-by-section, click here.

• The latest version of the SFR section is unchanged from what the House passed in May. Build-to-rent is intended to be exempt from the ban. 
• The version passed by the Senate in February included a mandatory sale clause for BTR properties to consumers seven-years after purchase by the large institutional investor. 
• After significant pushback, the House removed that divestment provision and the current version does not require BTR divestment.

Go deeper: Click here for a more detailed analysis of the SFR provision. While the ban includes several exemptions and is not intended to require large institutional investor to sell their current holdings, industry questions remain about the operational aspects of the law. 

Beyond the SFR provisions, the bill includes numerous tweaks to regulations around certain federal housing programs, several pilot programs aimed at boosting housing supply, and community bank bills championed by House Financial Services Chairman French Hill (R-AR). 

Highlights include:

• Increasing Housing in Opportunity Zones provision allows HUD to give added weight to competitive grants for housing in opportunity zones. 
• Innovation fund that authorizes a seven-year competitive grand pilot program for state and local governments to improve community infrastructure and build housing. 
• RESIDE Act authorizes a pilot program to convert vacant and abandoned buildings into attainable housing. 
  
• Housing Affordability Act raises FHA multifamily loan limits and changes the inflation metric. 
  
• Manufactured housing provisions aimed at boosting availability and federal support. 
  

Contact David McCarthy (dmccarthy@crefc.org) with questions.

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CREFC Comments on Basel Capital Rules and Leads Joint Trade Letter

June 23, 2026

On June 18, CREFC submitted its response to the following bank capital proposals issued in March by the Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC):

• Proposed revisions to the risk-based capital framework applicable to the largest, most internationally active firms and to firms with significant trading activity (Basel III proposal)
• Proposed regulatory capital and standardized approach for risk-weighted assets (standardized approach proposal)

CREFC also led a joint-trade effort spanning 11 associations. This joint letter was also submitted.

As covered in previous PCM Briefings:

• The Basel III proposal would revise the risk-based capital requirements applicable to the largest, most internationally active firms (Category I and II firms) and simplify the framework by subjecting firms to a single set of risk-based capital calculations; and
• The Standardized approach proposal would revise the U.S. standardized approach, which applies to Category III and IV banks, to better align capital requirements with the risk of traditional lending activities.

Both the CREFC and joint trade letters noted the proposals made significant positive strides from the Biden-era capital proposal toward tailoring capital requirements to actual risk, including better risk-adjusted securitization risk-weight calculations.

However, CREFC shared several recommendations to ensure the final rules appropriately calibrate capital requirements for CRE exposures, preserve essential financing channels, and avoid unintended consequences for CRE lending and securitization markets.

Some key recommendations include:

• Permit Category III and IV banking organizations to access granular CRE risk weights without adopting the entire expanded approach - currently, the proposals only allow Category I and II banks to access tailored risk-weighting for CRE exposures;
• Broaden the “regulatory CRE” and “real estate exposure” definitions to avoid structural penalties for mezzanine and SPE-recourse structures, with measured add-ons for subsequent liens as warranted;
• Revise the securitization eligibility criterion to recognize transactions that depend “primarily” on underlying assets and equalize the 15% floor for comparable government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) exposures during conservatorship;
• Tailor the expanded “commitment” scope, retain a 0% credit conversion factor (“CCF”) for unconditionally cancelable, secured CRE warehousing under the standardized approach; and
• Reassess the mortgage servicing asset risk weight in light of empirical performance and the Federal Regulators’ own requests for comment.
  

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CREFC Annual June Conference: Key Takeaways from the Forums

June 23, 2026

The recently concluded CREFC Annual June Conference in New York City was a resounding success, marked by strong industry engagement and registration levels that surpassed last year’s figures. Across the seven core forum panels, the prevailing outlook among participants was one of cautious optimism. While macro headwinds, elevated interest rates, and short-term stagnant transaction volumes continue to present challenges, the underlying sentiment focused on highly resilient capital markets liquidity and stable fundamentals that position the industry well for an accelerating recovery. 

Servicers Forum

• Special servicing transfers have become more predictable, driven primarily by asset maturity stress rather than outright operational cash-flow deterioration. 
• Core office properties remain the primary driver of the special servicing pipeline. 
• Loan bifurcations into A/B note structures have reemerged as an effective workout strategy to grant borrowers the additional time and capital runway needed to stabilize assets. 
• While automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will significantly reduce administrative burdens, panelists emphasized that servicing remains a deeply judgment-driven business. 

GSE/Multifamily Lenders Forum

• The Agency multifamily capital market remains highly functional, with stable bond spreads despite broader macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility. 
• Ongoing interest-rate uncertainty continues to push borrower demand toward shorter five-year loan terms. 
• The multifamily sector exhibits severe bifurcation rather than broad distress; heavy supply pressures have flattened rent growth in Sunbelt markets like Phoenix and Austin, while lower-supply markets in the Midwest and Northeast continue to outperform.

Portfolio Lenders Forum

• Commercial real estate private credit has matured into a permanent, cyclical $2 trillion global market. 
• CRE private credit benefits from lower leverage levels and tangible collateral backing, separating its resilient performance from the negative headlines surrounding corporate private lending. 
• Lenders are heavily focused on data centers, prompting intense underwriting scrutiny around power availability, localized tenant credit, and residual asset value at lease maturity. 

Investment-Grade (IG) Bondholders Forum

• CMBS transaction issuance and spreads remain highly resilient, led primarily by robust activity in single-asset single-borrower (SASB) and CRE CLO structures. 
• While down-stack ratings migrations are highly consequential for ratings-sensitive investors, actual realized principal losses remain limited. 
• Investors expressed a clear need for greater reporting transparency, standardized workout documentation, and consistent appraisal disclosure practices to strengthen long-term market confidence. 
  

B-Piece Investors Forum

• The conduit CMBS market faces ongoing constraints from interest-rate volatility, leading to elongated transaction execution timelines as borrowers wait until exact loan maturities to transact. 
• The footprint of office collateral in conduit pools remains materially lower compared to prior credit cycles. 
• Structural downside protection is taking center stage across all property sectors, forcing a heavier focus on capital reserves, earlier cash-sweep triggers, and deep property condition due diligence. 

Alternative Lenders and High Yield Investors Forum

• Alternative lenders are no longer viewed as capital providers of last resort, but rather as preferred, solution-oriented institutional counterparties for bridge, construction, and refinancing needs. 
• A highly liquid and competitive debt environment has tightened spreads, placing a premium on execution certainty and lender differentiation. 
• Significant investment opportunities are emerging in discounted secondary loans, driven by ongoing balance-sheet pruning and credit pullback among regional banks. 

Issuers Forum

• Securitization issuance remains active but structurally uneven; year-to-date issuance across conduit, SASB, and CRE CLO formats totals ~$82 billion, though conduits accounted for just a 16% share of that volume. 
• Capital availability and credit appetite remain selectively broad across all major property types, including retail, self-storage, and industrial. 
• Lending decisions continue to hinge strictly on sponsorship quality, asset fundamentals, and structural discipline rather than borrower attempts to predict the forward direction of the interest-rate market.
  

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