President gets sweeping power to ban Chinese real estate ownership
S. 176 — Not One More Inch or Acre Act · Filed by Tom Cotton (R-AR) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 22, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill directs the President to ban Chinese citizens and entities controlled by the Chinese government from buying real estate in the United States, and to force the sale of any such property already owned within one year if it poses a national security risk. It exempts Chinese refugees and asylees, and does not affect U.S. citizens or permanent residents who own property for personal use.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a national-security-based prohibition on real estate purchases by Chinese nationals and entities, with forced divestment of existing holdings deemed to pose security risks. This is a targeted foreign-investment control measure, not a general real estate or tax policy.
- Section 3 amends the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 to adjust penalty amounts (10–25%), unrelated to the primary real estate prohibition.
What the text implies
- The bill grants the President broad discretion to define 'national security risk' without statutory criteria, potentially enabling arbitrary enforcement or political targeting of property owners.
- One-year forced-sale requirement may depress property values for affected owners and create fire-sale conditions, harming both Chinese investors and U.S. real estate markets.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
U.S. real estate investors and domestic property owners (reduced foreign competition); Real estate investment trusts (REITs) and property management firms (potential market consolidation)