An effort in the Senate to loosen restrictions on Chinese nationals buying Florida real estate won't reach fruition this year.
The Senate approved easements legislation (HB 799) passed by the House, and in turn dumped language allowing purchases by Chinese buyers under certain conditions. In the upper chamber, sponsors hoped the bill would serve as a vehicle to revise a China crackdown law passed last year.
Those efforts slowed after Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed the language as an attempt to "unwind" a national security law he signed and has touted across the country.
GOP Sen. Clay Yarborough, who sponsored the easements bill in the Senate, said real estate professionals have raised a number of concerns about unintended consequences of last year's bill on land purchases.
"My goal was to address important concerns the business community has raised regarding the need to more clearly define a controlling interest versus a de minimis indirect interest," Yarborough said.
That change earned support from business advocates like the Real Estate Roundtable and Associated Industries of Florida
But DeSantis has shown no appetite publicly for changing last year's law.
"What we did has actually been a model," DeSantis told Florida Politics.
Ultimately, the House never took up that language even as it otherwise brought the legislation on easement rights in line with the upper chamber.
Yarborough ultimately decided to take up the House bill rather than pressing the issue, though he did so over the objection of some colleagues in the Senate.
"We are literally creating headwinds in the real estate industry because of last year's bill," said Sen. Jason Pizzo, a North Miami Beach Democrat. "We've been asked in a very nonpartisan fashion by our constituents and professionals about clarifying some of the things from last year. Will the House not take our language?"
Yarborough noted the House did adopt some revisions of language on easement rights, but nothing on buyers from foreign countries of concern.
"The passed bill now only relates to easements as it did when SB 814 was originally filed," Yarborough told Florida Politics.
The Senate ultimately passed the bill on a 34-5 vote.
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