S. 1796 — HART Act

This section defines three terms for purposes of the Act: (1) "residential property" as property zoned or intended to be used as a dwelling for individuals or households, including multifamily housing, condominiums, manufactured homes, or single-family homes, but excluding any place of short-term lodging; (2) "investment rental property" as real property that will not be rented to an entity (including any entity of the acquiring person) except for the sole purpose of maintaining, managing, or supervising the property, and that will be held solely for rental or investment purposes; and (3) "place of short-term lodging" as a hotel, motel, inn, short-term rental, or other place of lodging that advertises at a nightly, hourly, or weekly rate.

This section amends premerger notification requirements under Section 7A of the Clayton Act (i.e., Hart-Scott-Rodino Act) as follows: (1) deems all acquisitions of residential property (as defined in section 2 of the HART Act) by any person within a single calendar year a single acquisition, requiring the acquiring person to file notification upon the purchase that—when aggregated with prior such acquisitions in that year—meets applicable size-of-transaction thresholds; (2) eliminates exemptions under Section 7A(c)(1) for transactions that include residential property or investment rental property (as defined in section 2 of the HART Act), including via real estate investment trusts, unless solely for an individual's personal use; (3) directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division concurrence, to amend 16 C.F.R. part 802 accordingly; and (4) directs the FTC, with DOJ concurrence, to issue rules specifying forms and information required for such aggregated residential property acquisitions to assess potential antitrust violations. (Thus, multiple small residential property purchases by an entity in a year may trigger HSR filings if they cumulatively exceed thresholds, subjecting housing investors—including REITs—to antitrust review previously exempt.)