Chinese Influence in Florida’s Real Estate Market
Bottom Line: It’s not just Americans fleeing high taxes and absurd policies that have been buying up Florida’s real-estate in record numbers in recent years. It’s been foreigners as well. Some of those foreign buyers have been freedom seekers as well. Those who’ve fled what proved to be lockdown countries during the pandemic who’ve not wanted to find themselves in a similar situation ever again. Others have had other interests. Business, beaches, golf, all the things we’ve always had going for us. But then there are the more questionable interests. For example, the crackdown on Russian oligarchs last year at the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, had a profound impact in many South Florida communities where properties owned by them were common. Heading into this year’s state legislative session, the foreign buyers which have drawn the attention of officials are those being purchased by a Russian ally – China.
After stories hit of Chinese interests buying up huge swaths of farmland in the country, especially in the Dakotas, and commonly near US military interests last year, Florida’s state legislature began crafting legislation which would ban similar purchases in our state. On Monday, Governor DeSantis indicated he believes the legislation should go farther. Quoting DeSantis:
We don’t want to have holdings by hostile nations. If you look at the Chinese Communist Party, they’ve been very active gobbling up land … and when they have interests that are opposed to ours and we see how they have wielded their authority especially with President Xi, who’s taken a much more Marxist-Leninist turn, that is not in the best interest of Florida to have the Chinese Communist Party owning farm land, owning land close to military bases. But why would you want them buying residential developments and things like that? I don’t want them owning subdivisions and things like that.
So, it appears the related legislation which will be crafted for consideration within the state will be far wider reaching than before. While we wait to see what that’ll look like, here’s what we now know about foreign interests in Florida’s real-estate market:
- Florida’s 1st nationally for foreign buying interest
- 24% of all foreign purchases in the US are within Florida (California is 2nd at 11%)
- The top countries of origin for foreign buyers: Canada, Mexico & China
Six percent of all foreign buyers are Chinese. It’s unknown how many of these interests are directly related to Chinese enterprises – which would have ties to the CCP. Also, until we see the language of the proposed legislation, it's unclear what the impact might be in our state might be, however the Chinese have been among the most aggressive foreign buyers across the country and specifically within our state, thus a move by the legislature against purchases wouldn’t just be posturing.