Texas SB 17 · Exceptions
Three exceptions, and where each one is written.
Section 5.252 of the Property Code is titled EXCEPTIONS and runs three subdivisions. Every statement on this page names the subdivision it comes from, read off the enrolled text of S.B. 17, 89th Legislature, Regular Session. Where a carve-out is written somewhere other than 5.252, the page says where.
Section 5.252 excepts three things: a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident, a company owned or controlled only by such individuals and by no person the prohibition names, and a leasehold shorter than one year. A separate residence-homestead path sits inside Section 5.253(4)(A), not in 5.252.
Who is excepted by name?
Section 5.252(1): an individual who is a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States. That is the whole subdivision. It turns on citizenship or permanent residence and on nothing else.
Section 5.252 is titled EXCEPTIONS and states that the subchapter does not apply to three things: an individual who is a citizen or lawful permanent resident of the United States (5.252(1)); a company or organization owned by or under the control of one or more of those individuals and of no individual described by Section 5.253 (5.252(2)); and a leasehold interest in land or improvements constructed on a leasehold with a duration of less than one year (5.252(3)).
S.B. 17, 89th Legislature, Regular Session, enrolled text, sec. 5.252 · Verified September 10, 2026
When is a company or organization excepted?
Section 5.252(2), and both halves have to hold. The company or organization must be owned by or under the control of, first, one or more individuals described by Subdivision (1), and second, no individual described by Section 5.253. Section 5.251(2) defines company to include a wholly owned subsidiary, a majority-owned subsidiary, a parent company, and an affiliate, so the reading follows the chain rather than stopping at the entity named on the contract.
Are short leases outside the statute?
Section 5.252(3): a leasehold interest in land or improvements constructed on a leasehold, if the duration of the interest is less than one year. A leasehold of one year or more is not excepted, and what happens to one made in violation is a separate question with an answer of its own. Leases of a year or more.
Section 5.255(e) withholds the anti-voidness saving clause from a leasehold: except for an acquisition of a leasehold interest, an acquisition in violation of Section 5.253 is not void because of the violation. It does not declare a lease void. The remedy Subchapter H names is Section 5.257(a)(1)(C)(i), where a court-appointed receiver may divest an interest through sale, termination of a leasehold, or other disposition.
S.B. 17, 89th Legislature, Regular Session, enrolled text, secs. 5.255(e) and 5.257(a)(1)(C)(i) · Verified September 10, 2026
What about a residence homestead?
The homestead path is not one of the exceptions in Section 5.252. It is written inside the prohibition, at Section 5.253(4)(A), as an exception to the domicile paragraph: an individual domiciled in a designated country who is lawfully present and residing in the United States at the time the individual purchases or acquires the interest may purchase or acquire an interest in a residential property that is intended for use as an individual's residence homestead, as defined by Section 11.13(j), Tax Code. It appears in that paragraph and nowhere else in the section.
The residence-homestead path is not in Section 5.252. It sits inside the prohibition, at Section 5.253(4)(A): an individual domiciled in a designated country who is lawfully present and residing in the United States at the time of the acquisition may acquire an interest in a residential property intended for use as an individual's residence homestead, as defined by Section 11.13(j), Tax Code.
S.B. 17, 89th Legislature, Regular Session, enrolled text, sec. 5.253(4)(A) · Verified September 10, 2026
Does an acquisition before September 1, 2025 count?
No. The Act reaches only an acquisition made on or after its effective date, and an earlier one stays under the law that was in effect when it happened. The date the interest was acquired is the question, not the date anyone looked at the file.
SB 17 took effect September 1, 2025. SECTION 6 of the Act applies it only to a purchase or acquisition on or after that date; an acquisition before it stays under the prior law.
S.B. 17, 89th Legislature, Regular Session, enrolled text, SECTIONS 6 and 8 · Verified September 10, 2026
What does the statute say about aliens generally?
SB 17 amended Section 5.005 of the Property Code so that it now reads: except as provided by Subchapter H, an alien has the same real and personal property rights as a United States citizen. The three exceptions in Section 5.252 sit against that background rule.
What is not in Section 5.252?
Everything else. The subdivision list is closed at three. There is no carve-out written there for a visa holder as such, none for a company merely registered in Texas, none for an acquisition under a dollar threshold, and none for a lender taking a lien. If this page cannot name the section a carve-out comes from, it does not claim the carve-out exists.
Sources
Last verified September 10, 2026