Originally published at: Ron DeSantis signs laws banning foreign citizens from owning land in Florida | Boing Boing
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Good luck with that.
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I hope this is countered by a bill to counteract the malign influence of the Republican party in the state of Florida.
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Right, all the “communists” buying up million-dollar mansions in Florida.
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Now if it were to spread to London and NYC, we’d have something.
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but as Rob points out, this will do nothing to buyers parking cash in foreign assets. They already have accountants who know how to avoid laws like this. This is quite simply a “real estate agents go forth and redline” law. And real estate agents are already petite bourgeoisie, they’ll hear DeSantis loud and clear.
A real solution would to limit all investment buying in real estate and make housing about occupancy, regardless of nationality or immigration status.
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While this case is pure right-wing performative xenophobia, these kinds of foreign ownership restrictions in general are a good example of how well-intentioned progressive/populist policies (e.g. promoting affordable housing) can be twisted into appeals to bigotry and racism.
Discouraging absentee ultra-wealthy humans and legal fictions from out of country and out of state from turning housing into safe deposit boxes is not the goal of Florida’s fascist governor. He’s not going to do anything that would give real estate developers serious cause for concern.
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I’m assuming that foreign ownership of Florida lawmakers is still ok, right?
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Sure, he says China, but what he likely means is “people from our southern border”.
There’s no easy way to unwind the source of foreign investor funds, but simple and cruel to make everyone produce a green card just to look at a house.
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It’ll all be underwater soon no matter who owns it.
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And of course he knows that the law is both unenforceable and illegal. The equal protection clause specifically prevents you from blocking by race.
Now, if it would have been Chinese corporations (which is still easy to get around by just having an LLC in Delaware) that would have been more effective.
It’s just a dog whistle/virtue signaling.
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Abbott must be gashing his teeth. When TX passed the same law last month, no one noticed. But DeSantis gets headlines, he is the media darling.
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He’s banning Trump from selling condos to Russian oligarchs?
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This is a misleading headline.
It’s not blocked on race, it’s blocked on citizenship - and China wasn’t the only country - it also included Russia, Iran, Cuba, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela.
Further, it’s only “land within 10 miles of military bases”, or if a Chinese citizen with a non-tourist visa,it’s restriction is fewer than 2 acres of land at least five miles away from a military base. So still not all land in Florida.
See the article beschizza linked:
“Chinese citizens with non-tourist visas, meanwhile, would be limited to buying fewer than two acres of land that is at least five miles away from any military institutions, the Tampa Bay television news outlet WTVT reported.”
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The headline I see is:
Ron DeSantis signs laws banning foreign citizens from owning land in Florida
Nothing about race, nothing about China only.
What remains is a performative law meant to play to the xenophobia of DeSantis’ Know-Nothing supporters.
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The funny part is that it does nothing to stop the Chinese Communist Party owning land in Florida, easily accomplished through LLCs or other legal vehicles.
I was going to say - if you wanted to limit foreign state influence, shouldn’t it be banning companies etc?
So, this doesn’t target Chinese specifically, but everyone? Mexicans? Germans? British? That’s messed up.It certainly is not a welcoming sign for other investors. And not that I am going to cry too hard about this - but rich foreigners buying vacation homes etc?
I remember in the 80s everyone panicking about “the Japanese buying up everything”. And then I saw some news show that was like, “The British are the foreigners who own the most property in the US. The percentage owned by the Japanese is small compared to all of the others.” It was one of the earliest realizations that people are full of shit.
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Please be accurate. Senate passage is not the same as a bill becoming law. Texas has not passed that bill (yet). Last month it passed the Texas Senate and was sent to the house.
SB 147 has been watered down to restrict only
purchases of agricultural land, timberland and oil and gas rights by entities associated with any country that “poses a risk to the national security of the United States” — as designated by three consecutive annual threat assessment analyses by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
It no longer restricts home sales. The bill is currently in a house committee. The leg ends on May 29. There is a good possibility it will not pass in time.
https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=88R&Bill=SB147
ETA: even watered down it’s a racist piece of shit bill. Unfortunately not the shittiest bill moving thru the Texas legislature. It’s good they can only meet for less than 5 months every two years without calling a special session
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The race part I was responding to evadrepus, who suggested the equal protection clause would apply in a challenge to the law.
The title is still misleading as it suggests it is a ban, and not a restriction, as it would be more accurately described. There are similar laws in Canada - see Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act.
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@evadrepus didn’t write the headline, Captain Accuracy.
It is a ban when it comes to some land – a ban that doesn’t apply to U.S. citizens.
The Canadian laws are meant to address the housing affordability crisis in big desirable cities there. While some racists there have no doubt twisted it toward their own ends, the laws have an actual purpose beyond playing to mouth-breathing white supremacists.
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OK - then the headline should more accurately read “banning some foreign citizens from owning some land in Florida”, not “banning foreign citizens from owning land in Florida”. The absence of “some” suggests “all”, which is misleading. Personally, I think “Ron DeSantis signs law restricting foreign ownership of land in Florida” would be a less clickbaity headline, but I digress.
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