Legislation would restrict real estate buyers from Cuba, Venezuela, others

MIAMI – Changes could be coming to the Florida real estate market. 

New legislation is making its way through the Florida legislature that would place new rules on where you can purchase a home, if you’re a resident of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran.

Residents of those countries will be restricted from buying real estate within 20 miles of entities like the airport, military installations, even seaports among other locations.

Residents of China will be restricted from purchasing real estate statewide. Renting would be allowed for residents of the potentially restricted countries if these bills become law.

Nelson Gonzalez, Senior Vice President of Berkshire Hathaway Home Services EWM Realty, believes there won’t be much change to South Florida realty. 

“I’m not quite sure, other than Venezuela, that it’s going to affect the real estate market here much if at all because we’re not really getting those types of buyers, he said. 

In Gonzalez’s experience, the people he’s seeing buy in Miami Beach are domestic foreigners, people from New York, California, Chicago, and Connecticut.

“For the past three to four years we’ve had almost 80/90% American buyers,” Gonzalez said.

Miami’s Association of Realtors found that of the potentially restricted countries, only Venezuela ranks in the top foreign buyer rank accounting for 6% of the market. 

Still, Gonzalez believes there may be some benefits for Florida residents. “Things are slowing down a little bit so there might be opportunities in the next six to 12 months for the buyer to come in and purchase what they want,” he said.

The Senate version of this housing bill has passed. There are five companion house bills making their way through the Florida House.