Housing

Single-Family Homebuyer Protection Act established; civil penalty. Establishes the Single-Family Homebuyer Protection Act for the purpose of prohibiting a covered entity from acquiring an interest in more than five single-family homes within the same county, city, or town in the Commonwealth on or after July 1, 2026. The bill provides that no seller of a single-family home shall enter into an agreement with a covered entity for acquisition of such home before publicly marketing such home to natural persons residing in the Commonwealth and first-time homebuyers for at least 10 calendar days. The bill allows the Department of Housing and Community Development to publish aggregated information using existing data, including (i) the number and percentage of single-family homes owned by covered entities, broken down by locality, zip code, and census tract, and (ii) identified trends in the concentration of covered entity interests in single-family homes. The bill allows the Attorney General to seek an injunction and a civil penalty to restrain any violation of its provisions.

Virginia Workforce Housing Assistance Program; report. Establishes the Virginia Workforce Housing Assistance Program to provide grants to eligible employers, defined in the bill, that set up housing down payment assistance programs for employees in amounts equal to the lesser of 15 percent of housing down payment assistance expenses incurred by an eligible employer during the fiscal year or $25,000. The bill specifies that an eligible employer may only receive grants in the aggregate of up to $150,000 across all fiscal years or $250,000 for housing down payment assistance expenses incurred for employees in certain fiscally stressed localities. The bill requires weighting grants according to the household income of participating employees, as measured against the area median income (AMI) for the locality in which the dwelling is located. Any participating employee shall have an annual household income at or below 120 percent of the AMI for the locality in which the employee's dwelling is located and have never owned or purchased under contract for deed, either individually or jointly, a single-family residence in the Commonwealth or outside of the Commonwealth. The bill has an expiration date of July 1, 2028.