State foreign-ownership land laws now look through the LLC, and North Carolina's starts April 1, 2027

A real estate LLC can become a prohibited buyer because of who sits in its cap table. Florida bars any entity in which a covered person from China holds a controlling interest from acquiring Florida real property. Texas reaches companies majority owned or controlled by individuals tied to China, Iran, North Korea or Russia. North Carolina, from April 1, 2027, counts a single covered holder of 33%, or covered holders of 50% in aggregate, as enough to taint the entity.

These laws do not stop at the investor. When the LLC is the prohibited buyer, the property itself is at risk: Florida provides forfeiture and a $1,000-a-day penalty for late registration, and Texas lets the Attorney General bring an in rem action to force a sale.

When a covered foreign person controls the LLC, the LLC is the prohibited buyer, and the property is what gets forfeited or sold.

Where the law stands

Florida’s SB 264 is fully enforceable. A divided Eleventh Circuit panel ruled against the challengers in November 2025, and the plaintiffs dismissed their case on December 30, 2025. Texas SB 17 took effect September 1, 2025. The Texas Attorney General proposed implementing rules in March 2026 and revised them in October 2026; the revision is reported to treat any managing member, general partner, officer or 10% voting holder as a controller. Those rules are still proposed. North Carolina’s act was approved July 7, 2026 and covers farmland and land near military installations.

Other states moved too: West Virginia bars foreign-adversary-controlled businesses from owning any interest in its real estate, Louisiana’s 2026 act covers land near military installations from August 1, 2026, and Arizona’s 2026 law lowered its covered-interest threshold from 30% to 15%. Indiana’s and Tennessee’s 2026 measures are reported by secondary sources and not yet confirmed on official pages.

The structuring consequence

Subscription agreements, transfer restrictions and buyer affidavits now have to screen for citizenship and domicile, not just accreditation. A syndicator who admits a covered investor as a large member, or gives a covered person manager or general partner control, can turn the acquiring LLC into a prohibited buyer. The operating agreement should block any transfer that would cross a state’s threshold and give the manager a forced-redemption right.