RALEIGH — On April 16, the House unanimously passed legislation aimed at preventing foreign interests from purchasing certain land in North Carolina.
When the bill was brought to the floor for its second and third readings, no member rose to debate or discuss it, and the legislation was passed by a vote of 110-0.
The bill prohibits certain foreign governments designated as “adversarial” by the U.S. Department of State from acquiring agricultural and strategically important lands in the state.
Under the bill, adversarial foreign governments and their state-controlled enterprises would be prohibited from purchasing, acquiring, leasing or holding any interest in agricultural land or land within 75 miles of military installations.
The “NC Farmland and Military Protection Act” was updated through a preferred committee substitute on April 8.
The revisions included voiding prohibited foreign land acquisitions to creating a formal divestiture and investigation process overseen by the state’s attorney general.
The legislation now specifically excludes entities cleared by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States from restrictions while adding protections for lenders by allowing loan defaults when violations occur.
The bill passed by the House now clarifies that innocent purchasers won’t lose property rights due to previous owners’ violations and explicitly states no private right of action exists under the law.
Other key modifications include a detailed receivership process for selling prohibited properties, with proceeds from sales potentially forfeited to the state’s Civil Penalty and Forfeiture Fund.
The bill also specifically applies only to land acquisitions made after Dec. 1, 2025, thereby avoiding retroactive application to existing property interests.
