The presidential executive order of July 9, 2021 to promote "competition in the American economy" was intended more to prevent anti-competitive activity by corporations.

"[W]hat we've seen over the past few decades is less competition and more concentration that holds our economy back," said President Biden in afternoon remarks on the day he signed the order.  "We see it in big agriculture, in big tech, in big pharma. The list goes on. Rather than competing for consumers, they are consuming their competitors."

Multiple industries were called out in the order, one being real estate. When it "encouraged" the Federal Trade Commission chair to use rulemaking and statutory authority to "address persistent and recurrent practices that inhibit competition," one mentioned was "unfair tying practices or exclusionary practices in the brokerage or listing of real estate." That might be focused on resident real estate sales, as Michael Toth, general counsel of digital real estate startup REX argued in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. Or maybe, given sharp competition for space that frequently favors larger companies with massive resources, the breadth of the concern could spread to the commercial realm.