Florida and Texas limits on foreign buyers: who is covered and how

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Kooky

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Florida and Texas have each written a statute that closes part of their property market to buyers tied to a short list of foreign countries. The two laws differ on which countries, which people, which land, what paperwork and what happens when the rule is broken.

This guide sets the two side by side, using the texts themselves: sections 692.201 to 692.205 of the Florida Statutes, as published by the Florida Senate, and Texas Senate Bill 17 of 2025, which added subchapter H to chapter 5 of the Texas Property Code, as published by the Texas Legislature with the Senate Research Center's bill analysis. It then reports what two federal appeals courts decided about each law in late 2025; the Fifth Circuit opinion on the Texas law was read in a non-official reproduction, not on the court's own site. It describes general rules only; whether a given buyer is covered depends on the facts of the case.

Florida Statutes sections 692.203 and 692.204; Texas Property Code section 5.259 as added by Senate Bill 17 of 2025.

Two states, two different designs

Florida's law is built on geography and on the type of land. One section deals with agricultural land, a second with real property near military installations and critical infrastructure, and a third with buyers linked to the People's Republic of China. The statute uses 1 July 2023 as its dividing line: what a covered person held before that date may be kept, and what comes after it is restricted. The history notes printed under the sections trace them to chapter 2023-33 of the Laws of Florida, with amendments in chapter 2024-6.

Texas chose another design. Senate Bill 17 does not draw circles on a map. It lists the kinds of buyer who may not purchase or otherwise acquire an interest in real property anywhere in Texas, and then carves out exceptions. According to the enrolled text, the Act took effect on 1 September 2025 and applies only to acquisitions on or after that date.

Which countries each law names

Florida names its countries in the statute. Section 692.201 defines a "foreign country of concern" as the People's Republic of China, the Russian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Cuba, the Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro and the Syrian Arab Republic, together with their agencies and other entities under their significant control.

Texas names none. Section 5.251 of the Property Code defines a "designated country" by reference to a federal document: a country that the Director of National Intelligence has identified as posing a risk to national security in at least one of the three most recent editions of the Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community. The list therefore moves with those reports. The bill's own legislative findings cite the 2025 edition and discuss China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in its December 2025 opinion on the law, as reproduced in the non-official copy read, wrote that the list includes those four.

Texas also gives its governor a role that Florida's statute does not. Under section 5.254, the governor may add or remove a country, a transnational criminal organisation or another entity, after consulting the public safety director of the Department of Public Safety and the Homeland Security Council. A designation or a removal applies only to acquisitions made on or after the date of the governor's action.

Who counts as a covered buyer

In Florida the covered buyer is called a "foreign principal". Section 692.201 gives five categories: the government or an official of a country of concern; a political party of such a country, its members and subdivisions; a business or other entity organised under that country's laws or with its principal place of business there, and its subsidiaries; a person domiciled in a country of concern who is not a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States; and any of those who holds a controlling interest in an entity formed to own real property in Florida.

Citizenship alone is therefore not the test for an individual: a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States is outside the definition. The section does not define domicile. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals addressed the meaning of the word in November 2025, as reported below.

Texas lists its prohibited buyers in section 5.253. The first three groups are institutions: a governmental entity of a designated country; a company or organisation headquartered in such a country, held or controlled by its government, majority owned by prohibited individuals or designated by the governor; and a company majority owned or controlled by one of those. The fourth group is individuals, in five cases:

• a person domiciled in a designated country, subject to the homestead exception described below;
• a citizen of a designated country who is domiciled outside the United States in a country that is not designated, and who has not completed naturalisation there;
• a citizen of a designated country who is unlawfully present in the United States;
• a person who is not a citizen of the United States and acts as an agent or on behalf of a designated country;
• a member of the ruling political party of a designated country, or of any subdivision of it.

Section 5.252 then removes three situations from the subchapter altogether: citizens and lawful permanent residents of the United States; a company or organisation owned or controlled by them, provided none of the prohibited individuals also owns or controls it; and a leasehold interest in land or improvements that lasts less than one year. Unlike Florida, Texas defines "domiciled" in the statute: having established a true, fixed and permanent home and principal residence to which the individual intends to return whenever absent.

What property is covered in Florida

Section 692.202 covers agricultural land, defined as land classified as agricultural under section 193.461 of the Florida Statutes. A foreign principal may not directly or indirectly own, control or acquire it.

Section 692.203 covers real property on or within 10 miles of any military installation or critical infrastructure facility in the state. Both terms are defined. A military installation is a base, camp, post, station, yard or centre of at least 10 contiguous acres under the jurisdiction of the Department of Defense or its affiliates. A critical infrastructure facility is one of a closed list (a chemical manufacturing facility, a refinery, an electrical power plant, a water or wastewater treatment plant, a liquefied natural gas terminal, a telecommunications central switching office, a gas processing plant, a seaport, a spaceport territory or an airport) and counts only if it uses fences, barriers or guard posts to keep unauthorised people out.

Section 692.204 is organised by buyer instead of by land. It applies to the People's Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party and other Chinese political parties with their officials and members, entities organised or based in China and their subsidiaries, and persons domiciled in China who are neither citizens nor lawful permanent residents of the United States.

All three sections share a narrow carve-out for passive investors, the "de minimis indirect interest". It covers an interest that comes from holding registered equities in a publicly traded company and stays under 5 per cent of any class of those equities, or under 5 per cent in aggregate across classes, and a non-controlling interest in an entity controlled by an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission that is not itself a foreign entity.

Section 692.205 adds one general exemption: the part does not apply when a foreign principal acquires real property for a diplomatic purpose that the federal government recognises.

The one-home exception in each state

In Florida the exception sits in sections 692.203 and 692.204 and is reserved for natural persons. A covered individual may buy one residential real property of up to 2 acres if three conditions are met. The parcel is not on or within 5 miles of any military installation in the state. The buyer holds a current verified United States visa that is not limited to authorising tourist-based travel, or official documentation confirming that asylum has been granted. And the purchase is made in the name of the person who holds the visa or the asylum documentation.

In Texas the exception is a clause inside the first category of prohibited individuals. A person domiciled in a designated country who is lawfully present and residing in the United States may buy residential property intended as a residence homestead, a term the section takes from section 11.13(j) of the Texas Tax Code. Its limits are these: the property must be residential and the buyer must intend it as a homestead. The clause is attached to the "domiciled in a designated country" category only; the other four categories of individual carry no such wording in the enrolled text.

Florida also provides for property that arrives without a purchase. On or after 1 July 2023, a foreign principal may acquire real property by devise or descent, through the enforcement of a security interest or through the collection of a debt, provided the interest is sold, transferred or otherwise divested within 3 years.

Florida's buyer affidavit at closing

Under each of the three sections, at the time of purchase the buyer must provide an affidavit, signed under penalty of perjury, on the buyer's compliance with the section.

The statute tells the Florida Real Estate Commission to adopt rules establishing the form. The commission's rule 61J2-10.200 of the Florida Administrative Code, titled "Buyer's Affidavits; Form", took effect on 17 January 2024, according to the rule's page in the state's administrative register. That page cites sections 692.202(5)(c) and 692.203(6)(c) as the rulemaking authority.

The statute then limits what a missing affidavit can do to a transaction.

"Actual knowledge" is the statute's own standard. The seller is addressed elsewhere: a person who knowingly sells real property or an interest in it in violation of a section commits an offence, as set out below.

Registration duties in Florida

Registration is the second routine obligation, and the statute places it on the covered owner.

For agricultural land, a foreign principal who held an interest before 1 July 2023 had to register it with the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services by 1 January 2024, giving the owner's name, the address and parcel identification number of the property, its legal description and its acreage.

For property near military installations and critical infrastructure, and for property covered by the China section, registration is with the Department of Commerce. Holdings that predate 1 July 2023 were to be registered by 31 December 2023. A covered individual who buys a home under the one-home exception after that date must register it within 30 days. The department's rules are chapter 73C-60 of the Florida Administrative Code: seven rules, all effective 4 January 2024, on matters that include registration, fines and liens.

Late registration costs a civil penalty of US$1,000 for each day it is late, and the department may place a lien against the property. As a worked example, with an assumed delay: an owner who registers 45 days after the deadline faces 45 × US$1,000, or US$45,000.

Penalties, forfeiture and divestiture

In Florida, land owned or acquired in violation may be forfeited to the state. The responsible department (Agriculture and Consumer Services for farmland, Commerce for the other two sections) files a civil action in the circuit court, and a lis pendens, a notice of pending litigation, is recorded under section 48.23. A final judgment of forfeiture vests title in the state, subject to the interests of bona fide lienholders. The department may then sell the property; the proceeds pay the lienholders, then outstanding fines and the department's costs, and anything left goes to the owner. The court may also issue an order of seizure without hearing the other side when the department shows a clear and present danger.

The criminal side depends on the section. Under sections 692.202 and 692.203, a foreign principal who buys in violation commits a misdemeanour of the second degree, and so does a person who knowingly sells in violation. Under section 692.204 the grades rise: the covered buyer commits a felony of the third degree and the knowing seller a misdemeanour of the first degree.

Texas puts enforcement with the Attorney General. The path runs in five stages.

Three details of that path stand out. First, the sale survives: under section 5.255, an acquisition made in violation is not void for that reason. The one exception is a leasehold. The second is the order in which a receiver's sale proceeds are paid under section 5.257: existing liens first, then the state's reasonable costs of enforcement, then the remainder to the person who bought. As a worked example with assumed figures: if a receiver sells an interest for US$600,000, the property carries a US$350,000 mortgage lien and the state's costs are US$40,000, the buyer receives US$600,000 − US$350,000 − US$40,000, or US$210,000.

The third is the split between individuals and entities. An individual in one of the five prohibited categories who intentionally or knowingly acquires an interest in violation commits a state jail felony under section 5.258. A company or other entity is liable instead to a civil penalty under section 5.259: the greater of US$250,000 or 50 per cent of the market value of the interest. A worked example shows where the floor stops mattering. For an interest worth US$400,000, half is US$200,000, so the penalty is the US$250,000 floor. For one worth US$1,200,000, half is US$600,000, which is the penalty. The two measures meet at a market value of US$500,000.

What the texts say about agents and title companies

Florida brings the closing into the law. The buyer's affidavit is a closing document, its form is set by the Florida Real Estate Commission, and the statute speaks to the closing agent by name, protecting the agent who lacks actual knowledge of a violation and the insurability of the title when an affidavit is missing. It also reaches the seller who sells knowingly.

Texas, in the enrolled text of Senate Bill 17, says nothing of the kind. The subchapter contains no provision setting out a duty or a liability for a seller, an agent or a title company. Screening is assigned to the Attorney General, who must establish review procedures and was directed to adopt implementing rules as soon as practicable. Whether such rules have been adopted, and what they ask of anyone at a closing, is not confirmed.

What the federal courts have decided so far

One federal appeals decision on each law is reported here, both from late 2025. Neither struck a law down, and domicile figured in both.

The Florida case reached the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals as case number 23-12737, on appeal from the Northern District of Florida, where the district court had denied a preliminary injunction. The appeals court's opinion, filed on 4 November 2025 and written by Judge Luck for a panel with Judges Lagoa and Wilson, separated the law into its parts. On the purchase restriction it held that no plaintiff had standing to challenge it. The court described domicile in Florida as living there with no present intention of removing.

On the registration and affidavit requirements the court found that one plaintiff had standing for each, and then affirmed the refusal of an injunction. It applied rational basis review and found the Fair Housing Act and vagueness claims unlikely to succeed. The court reversed as to the purchase restriction and sent the case back with instructions to deny the injunction without prejudice for lack of standing. The opinion refers to a dissent.

The Texas case reached the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals as case number 25-20354. The opinion was read for this guide in a non-official reproduction and not on the court's own site. Dated 11 December 2025 and written by Judge Oldham for a panel with Judges Wiener and Engelhardt, it affirmed a dismissal for lack of standing. Two reasons are given. The plaintiff was not domiciled in China. And he faced no substantial threat of enforcement: the Texas Attorney General had stated that the law does not apply to him. The opinion mentions a separate challenge pending in the Western District of Texas at that date.

In the Texas appeal the deciding points were where the buyer was domiciled and whether enforcement was a real prospect, and the court did not reach the merits of the law.

What remains open

Several questions are not answered by the statutes and opinions read here.

• Forms and procedures. The wording of Florida's affidavit forms, the Department of Commerce's registration process and the Texas Attorney General's review procedures were not examined.
• The Texas list. Because the designated countries follow the three most recent federal threat assessments and the governor's own designations, the list can change without a new statute. Senate Bill 17 also carries a severability clause.
• The merits. The Eleventh Circuit ruled at the preliminary injunction stage and the Fifth Circuit on standing. Neither court has given a final ruling on whether the purchase bans themselves are constitutional.
• Scope and grades in Florida. Whether section 692.204 reaches property throughout the state is not confirmed by the text relied on here, and the fines and jail terms attached to each grade of offence are not given.
• The Eleventh Circuit opinion. Its treatment of federal preemption and the content of the dissent are not reported here.
• Later changes. Florida's sections are described from the 2025 edition of the statutes and Texas's from the bill as enrolled in 2025. Nothing after December 2025 is covered.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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