US appeals court says Florida can ban Chinese citizens from buying property

Nov 4 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday cleared the way for Florida to enforce a law restricting real estate and land purchases by Chinese citizens, rejecting claims it violates federal law and discriminates against Asians.

The 2-1 ruling opens new tab by the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals could encourage other states to adopt so-called alien land laws, which were once common but fell out of favor a century ago. Lawmakers in more than 30 states have passed or introduced bills restricting foreign property ownership.

The 11th Circuit said four Chinese citizens represented by the American Civil Liberties Union lacked legal standing to sue over Florida's 2023 law because it only applies to people "domiciled" in China, and they have lived in Florida for years.

The court also rejected claims that provisions of the law requiring Chinese citizens to register their properties with the state conflict with a federal law governing foreign investments and were improperly motivated by racism against Chinese people and Asians.

"National, individual, land, and food security concerns motivated (the law's) enactment," Circuit Judge Robert Luck wrote for the court.

The office of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

ACLU attorney Ashley Gorski said in a statement: "Although today's decision is disappointing, we'll continue to fight laws like these that blatantly target immigrants based on their national origin and ethnicity."

A different 11th Circuit panel last year had blocked Florida's law from being enforced pending the outcome of the appeal.

What happens if I go to China and try to buy some property ?

You basically can't:

Yes, foreigners can buy property in China, but with significant restrictions: they can generally only purchase one residential property for personal use, must have resided in China for at least one year, and are prohibited from buying for investment purposes like rental or resale. It's important to note that foreigners cannot own the land itself, only the building on it, and they acquire a land-use right, which is a leasehold from the state for a set term.

Real Estate is sold to people in and from Communist China via several pathways,
1. by relations and friends domiciled in USA
2. by flying to USA and purchasing here, usually with a local broker (often but not necessarily Chinese) picking them up at the landing field and taking them on property tours (normal real estate touring vehicles, big vans, sometimes buses and even small aircraft have been used). If any purchase loan is needed — often, but not necessarily, it will be pre-arranged via a local USA bank, of ten but not necessarily one of the dozens of Chinese-identified or affiliated banks here in USA).
3. by an American real estate broker flying to Communist China and holding sales seminars in major hotel meeting rooms (usually in Shanghai and Beijing, plus Hong Kong — and sometimes in other large cities, too). The brokers bring complete purchase documents packages with them, as well as video tours of the properties being sold. And to answer the obvious question, yes some buyers from China actually do purchase USA properties without ever having seen them.
4. More and more steps in the process are being conducted or at least aided via internet (such as Zoom meetings and the video tours, online loan application or funding transfers, online signature attestation/notarization surreogate services as authorized in several states’ laws, translation programs although many Chinese buyers speak fairly good English anyway, etc)...combined, the communciations technology is getting close to 100 percent purchase transaction support.
5. Sellers often prefer these buyers because so many of them make ALL CASH offers. No risk of the bidder not qualifying for a purchase loan...(so no need of all the banks mentioned above, smiles smiles). Just verify the funds are on deposit in a safe place and approve the sale. The foreign buyers and especially those from communist and other dictatorial countries sometimes want to place some of their money, assets overseas (like in USA, plus other places). It is a hedge against total confiscation.

Many nice USA towns which historically had few Chinese residents or owners now havec 30 to 60 percent. Also, many (about half, depending on what stats one reads) Silicon Valley high tech corporations are owned by Chinese people (domestic and foreign alike), with people from India being well represented largely in software-oriented firms.

An American bidder who is “credit dependant” (needs to borrow money to purchase) is almost always going to lose if an all-cash bid comes in. (Very often, an all-cash bid is a foreign bid...)

Try to slow or stop or place barriers on foreign real estate purchases in USA and you’ll see a quick coalition of real estate brokers, RE sales agents, and property owners all fighting to keep the foreign $$$ flowing (some say, flooding) into the market.

not advocating, just reporting as best I can what we see happening..

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