Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford has unveiled his gubernatorial campaign’s housing plan, calling for a crackdown on corporate homebuying and new tenant assistance initiatives.

The plan released Thursday, which has not been previously reported, covers everything from freeing up federal land for affordable housing development to placing a cap on security deposit costs. It also pledges to cut down on red tape to expedite housing development, develop unused land in Las Vegas and pass legislation vetoed by Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, such as a ban on home price fixing and the corporate homebuying crackdown.

It also includes other proposals already underway in Nevada, such as money for down payment and rental assistance programs. Ford, a Democrat, also pledged to challenge the Trump administration’s tariffs — he is already part of a lawsuit against them — though the governor has limited authority to conduct these legal challenges.

There is a notable omission from Ford’s plan: rent control. In recent years, Lombardo has vetoed multiple bills from legislative Democrats related to rent control, including a proposal to cap rent increases for seniors and another to allow local governments to implement rent control.

In an interview with The Nevada Independent, Ford said he would have to do more research into those proposals, but that there should be more discussions about these kinds of reforms.

“I find it irresponsible to not have conversations around policies that can positively affect the lives of Nevadans,” Ford said.

The plan — the first of Ford’s policies to address affordability in Nevada — comes at a difficult time for homebuying in the Silver State. Las Vegas home sales in 2025 were the lowest in nearly two decades, and a report from last year found that more than half of Nevada renters and nearly a quarter of homeowners are cost-burdened, defined as at least 35 percent of gross monthly income spent on housing costs.

It’s a growing political issue, too. A recent poll found housing affordability as the second most important issue to Nevada voters, only trailing the economy.

Housing was the subject of one of Lombardo’s marquee bills during the 2025 legislative session, and has been central to his campaign so far. AB540 passed with bipartisan support and includes $133 million to support “attainable housing” development and efforts to speed up the housing permitting and review processes.  

To face Lombardo in November, Ford would first have to win the June Democratic primary against Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill.

Hill has backed temporary rent caps.

Corporate homebuying

A key part of Ford’s plan to lower housing costs — the crackdown on corporate homebuying — almost passed in dramatic fashion late last year.

Lawmakers in the fall special session proposed a bill to limit the number of home purchases that large corporations can make in a single year. During the regular session, Lombardo reportedly told lawmakers to vote against a bill to place a 100-unit annual cap on corporate homebuying — which required a two-thirds majority — and in the special session, a bill to establish a 1,000-unit limit failed by one vote.

Ford’s plan does not specify his preferred limit, but he said the 100-unit cap “is a great start.”

Read More: Advocates called Nevada corporate homebuying cap a ‘glimmer of hope.’ Here’s how it died.

Most recently, President Donald Trump announced (with minimal specifics) plans to ban large investors from buying homes — an idea that Ford supported. Lombardo, who vetoed a bill in 2023 on the issue, said he was looking more into the issue and had convened an “interim stakeholder working group" without providing more details.

Federal land

Because more than 80 percent of Nevada land is owned by the federal government, freeing up land for housing has long been a priority on both sides of the aisle.

Ford said he would partner with federal, state and local officials to prioritize federal land for affordable housing initiatives, while balancing it with conservation efforts.

Lombardo has had largely similar priorities. He entered into a memorandum of understanding with the state Bureau of Land Management office to “exchange information and expedite the release of federal land for attainable housing” and requested that Nevada be represented on a federal public lands and housing task force.

He also supported a bill from Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) that sought to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of public land transactions.

Read More: Will the release of federal land help Nevada’s affordable housing crisis? It depends

Asked about the apparent similarities between his and Lombardo’s approaches, Ford said the administration “has been doing nothing that is satisfactory for purposes of addressing this issue.”

There is one notable distinction. In his administration, Lombardo prioritized using federal land for “attainable housing,” while Ford wants the projects to be for “affordable housing.” The latter typically refers to housing for people with low to moderate incomes, while the former is geared toward middle-income buyers.

Tenant assistance

One new proposal in Ford’s plan is to cap security deposits to the equivalent of one month’s rent. Nevada law currently allows landlords to charge up to three times the price of a month’s rent for a deposit — a rule that his plan says “is untenable for working families.”

He also called for more rental and down payment assistance. His office reached a settlement with the property management software group RealPage last year that includes $200,000 for these initiatives.

Lombardo has also supported some of these measures. The Legislature in 2025 passed a bill that provided more than $21 million in rental assistance funding to local governments, and Lombardo’s housing bill allowed for the creation of a new $18 million down payment assistance program.

In an interview with The Indy, Ford did not answer whether these kinds of programs should be an ongoing state expense (rather than for a couple of years), but that “the conversation is to be had about duration and subsequent use.”

He also pledged to pass a bill sponsored by his office that Lombardo vetoed last year (AB44), which would have banned the price fixing of essential goods and services, including housing. Ford has said the impetus behind the bill was learning about companies using algorithms to inflate housing prices. Some Democrats also opposed the bill.

And his plan calls for reforms to the rental fee system by banning “extraneous ‘junk fees’ not tied to real, measurable costs.”