The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’, signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025, is a sweeping piece of legislation that combines major tax cuts, spending reforms, and conservative policy priorities into a 900-page package. For U.S. apartment owners and developers, the legislation offers a mix of new opportunities, financial incentives, and long-term structural changes that are likely to influence investment strategies and property management decisions for years to come.
According to Buddy Hughes, Chairman at the National Association of Home Builders, the legislation will “help spur economic growth and allow our members to invest more resources in multifamily rental construction, land development to build more single-family homes, and new equipment to expand their businesses.”
In turn, he added, “It will create a better business climate that allows builders to increase the nation’s housing supply, which is crucial to help ease America’s housing affordability crisis. We urge the House to move quickly to pass this bill.”
Financially, the bill offers several perks for property owners and investors. The 20 per cent deduction on net rental income—originally introduced in the 2017 tax reform—has been made permanent, improving after-tax returns. Additionally, new deductions for repairs and maintenance have been introduced, helping to lower operational costs for building owners. Mortgage insurance premiums are now permanently deductible as well, offering further tax relief for owners with financed properties.
That said, the One Big Beautiful Bill is not without its trade-offs. Critics argue that it disproportionately benefits high-income investors and developers, while offering limited direct relief to renters or first-time homebuyers. Some initiatives overseen by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), promoting housing access, affordability, and community development, are expected to experience adverse effects, while others face outright elimination.
In March, the Green and Resilient Retrofit Program (GRRP), a $1 billion initiative launched under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to fund energy-efficient and climate-resilient upgrades in affordable housing, was officially terminated under the Trump administration. Reportedly, the program had supported improvements at over 25,000 affordable housing sites, including floodproofing, insulation, HVAC upgrades, and green energy retrofits, while requiring recipients to maintain affordability for up to 25 years. The move has since been criticized as a major setback for climate resilience in low-income communities, with HUD removing references to the program from its website and offering little public explanation.
Meanwhile, several prominent housing and civil rights organizations have voiced strong opposition to the Trump administration’s policy changes, including the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) and the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA).
“Slashing funding to vital housing programs and transforming proven programs into block grants–with added constraints of time limits and work requirements–will lead to significant funding decreases over time, reduce the number of households receiving assistance, and shift responsibility for deciding which households will lose the assistance to remain stably housed to state and local administrators,” a spokesperson for NFHA said in a statement. “It will also put the most vulnerable and marginalized communities at increased risk of housing instability and homelessness. “
