CFIUS Finalizes FIRRMA Real Estate Transaction Rules

On January 13, 2020, the Department of the Treasury published final rules implementing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act's (FIRRMA) provisions regarding certain foreign investments in real estate in the United States.¹ FIRRMA, which was enacted in 2018, provided the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) with expanded jurisdiction to review foreign investments in the United States and to recommend that the president block or otherwise interfere with such investments.²

Prior to FIRRMA, CFIUS had jurisdiction to review foreign investments in US real estate only in connection with foreign acquisitions of control over a US business. FIRRMA expanded CFIUS's jurisdiction to include certain transactions involving the purchase or lease by, or a concession to,³ a foreign person of certain real estate in the United States, even where there is no accompanying investment in a US business. Under the final rules, these transactions are