PESP gives public comments on RealPage owner investment at pension meetings
October 31, 2025
On September 11, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) gave public comment at the Texas County and District Retirement System (TCDRS), Board of Trustees’ Meeting about TCDRS’s investment in Thoma Bravo, the private equity firm that acquired the property management software corporation RealPage in 2021. This public comment completed a series of seven public comments that PESP has given in 2025, urging public pension funds that are invested with Thoma Bravo to halt any future investments with Thoma Bravo. The Private Equity Stakeholder Project stated that the Department of Justice lawsuit, bans in major cities, the proposed state legislation banning the usage of the software, recent settlements, and the outpouring of negative press about RealPage, could have a negative impact on returns for pensioners, along with the reputation of pension funds invested in Thoma Bravo.
In addition to TCDRS, PESP has spoken at Washington State Investment Board, San Francisco Employee’s Retirement System, Orange County Employees Retirement System, Texas Teachers Retirement System, Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System, and Arizona State Retirement System. Additionally, PESP submitted written testimony to the Hawaii Employees’ Retirement System and State of Wisconsin Investment Board, and also met with staff from the California Public Employees Retirement System, California State Teachers Retirement System, New York Common Retirement Fund, Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association, and the Minnesota State Board of Investment about their investments with Thoma Bravo.
RealPage is currently being sued by the Department of Justice (DOJ), along with a bipartisan group of state attorneys general, for accusations of facilitating rental price collusion, through sharing non-public information between competinglandlords. In January 2025, the DOJ updated its suit to name six corporate landlords, including the private equity landlords Greystar, Cortland Management, and Blackstone. The DOJ settled with Cortland Management in January 2025 and Greystar in August 2025. Per the terms of the settlements, Greystar and Cortland Management agreed to cease from sharing sensitive data with competitors. Blackstone has yet to settle with the DOJ. While the initial DOJ suit against RealPage was initiated under the Biden administration, there are numerous indicators that the lawsuitswill continue under Trump.
The backlash against RealPage has been widespread. In addition to the DOJ suits, RealPage has been sued by individual states such as Arizona and Maryland. RealPage recently settled with the state of Nevada in September 2025, agreeing to pay $200,000 to the state and to not use nonpublic data to generate rent recommendations for Nevada properties unless the data is at least three months old. Over ten major cities have banned usage of RealPage and similar software, and the 2025 legislative session saw 22 different states proposing over 44 pieces of legislation to ban RealPage and similar softwares. RealPage has also been the subject of several public letters from politicians such as Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, and Amy Klobuchar. RealPage faced additional criticism by lawmakers due to the corporation’s lobbying in support of a controversial moratorium on AI regulation that would have been a part of Trump’s most recent tax bill. The provision (which was struck down by a last-minute bipartisan effort), would have meant that states that passed legislation related to AI and child safety could have risked access to broadband internet.
Jordan Ash spoke to Texas Teacher’s Retirement System about the fund’s investment in Thoma Bravo.
PESP’s public comments highlighted the latest updates in the list of ongoing issues with RealPage and Thoma Bravo, and raised concerns over the impact that negative headlines involving RealPage could have on returns for pensioners. Additionally, PESP noted that Greystar, one of the country’s largest landlords, has agreed to no longer use software that shares competitive data, or participate in RealPage roundtables for competing landlords. Changes to a contract this large could have negative impacts on Thoma Bravo’s returns. Lastly, PESP discussed the ethical ramifications of an investment in Thoma Bravo and RealPage. Controlling 80% of the marketshare, RealPage has led to large-scale change within the housing industry through potentially creating a monopoly where landlords not using the software risk being eliminated from competition. Rising rental prices impact some of the country’s most marginalized groups. As the DOJ lawsuits continue, PESP will continue to serve as a resource for public pension funds about Thoma Bravo, and will continue to monitor updates to the ongoing lawsuits.
To read more about RealPage, check out this page on the Private Equity Stakeholder Project website.
