Proposed Act Forces Chinese-Affiliated Entities to Sell All US Farmland and Homes Within One Year

The “Protecting Our Farms and Homes from China Act” aims to sharply restrict land ownership in the U.S. by entities connected to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The core of this bill is a hard stop: it bans what it calls “covered foreign entities” from buying or leasing U.S. agricultural land, effective immediately. Furthermore, any covered entity that already owns farmland must sign a letter of intent to sell within 180 days and complete the sale—divest—within one year of the law passing. If they don't, the consequences are severe: a fine of $100 per acre, charged every single day the land is held illegally, plus potential criminal charges and government seizure of the land.

Who Exactly Is on the Covered List?

This is where things get complicated. The definition of a “covered foreign entity” is extremely broad, going far beyond state-owned enterprises. It includes any corporation incorporated in the PRC (including Hong Kong and Macau), any organization that can act on behalf of the PRC government, and crucially, any individual or organization affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It also sweeps up any entity owned or controlled by, or acting on behalf of, any of the above groups. This means the rules could potentially catch private businesses, universities, and even individuals with relatively distant or non-governmental ties to the PRC, creating a massive enforcement challenge for the Department of Agriculture, which is tasked with setting up a new compliance office to manage this.

The Residential Real Estate Cliff

Beyond farms, this bill also targets the housing market. Section 4 creates a temporary two-year ban on covered foreign entities purchasing residential real estate—defined as everything from single-family homes to fourplexes and zoned land. The ban starts immediately, but similar to the farmland rule, existing owners get a mandatory one-year deadline to sell off their residential properties. The penalty for holding onto a home or condo past that deadline is even steeper: a fine of $1,000 per day. The Secretary of Commerce is in charge of enforcing this residential ban and must report back to Congress on how the ban has affected housing affordability. The President also has the power to extend this two-year ban indefinitely, renewal after renewal.

What This Means for Everyday Life

If you’re a regular person, you might not notice much change, but the bill’s broad scope and severe penalties create high-stakes scenarios. For example, a successful tech executive who is a PRC national and owns a small farm as an investment would be forced to sell both the farm and their personal residence within a year. If they miss the deadline due to market conditions or administrative delays, they face escalating, crippling daily fines—a massive financial hammer. On a smaller scale, the bill also automatically voids any noncompete agreements related to agricultural land ownership or leasing that a covered entity might have with its employees, which is a small win for those workers seeking new employment after a forced divestiture.