A $27.5 million sale in McLean reveals how privately acquired and developed real estate can ultimately become part of a foreign government’s growing portfolio in one of America’s most strategically important regions.

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Living in Northern Virginia changes the way I read stories about foreign governments purchasing American land.

These aren’t transactions taking place somewhere far away. McLean. Arlington. Langley. Chain Bridge Road. The Potomac. These are places in our own backyard—communities intertwined with the federal government, intelligence community, military leadership, and the people who shape American policy. Our home in the Blue Ridge Mountains literally overlooks the Washington, DC valley and the very areas where the rich and powerful call home.

So when I read that the government of the United Arab Emirates purchased a 21,000-square-foot mansion in McLean for $27.5 million, what caught my attention wasn’t simply the extraordinary price tag.

It was how the property got there.

According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal and The Daily Wire, the story began in 2018 when Northern Virginia dentist and entrepreneur Sonu Kakar purchased the strategically located land for approximately $2.1 million. Over the following years, he developed a massive luxury residence on the property. By 2024, the house was complete and eventually listed for nearly $30 million.

It was supposedly a “spec” house—a property constructed without a particular buyer already committed to purchasing it.

Then something significant happened.

The mansion was removed from the market in May 2025. Four months later, in September, the government of the United Arab Emirates purchased it privately in an all-cash, off-market transaction for $27.5 million. The property is near CIA headquarters and became the most expensive residential sale in the Washington region that year.

There is no evidence in the reporting that Kakar originally purchased the land or constructed the house as an agent for the UAE. Kakar himself told The Daily Wire that the project involved loans and investment partners and said his dentistry business had nothing to do with it. Given the nature of the property, however, it is also not a huge leap to see this as suspicious.

A piece of Northern Virginia real estate was purchased privately. A massive estate was constructed by a private developer. Years later, the completed property became an asset of a foreign sovereign government.

That is a turn of events worth watching and a pathway of acquisition worth dissecting.

A Much Larger Pattern

The McLean mansion is not an isolated acquisition.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the UAE government or Emirati citizens now control at least 21 properties worth roughly $200 million throughout the Washington region. Real-estate professionals interviewed by the Journal described aggressive Emirati purchasing in some of the area’s most exclusive neighborhoods.

And Chain Bridge Road has become particularly noteworthy.

This stretch along the Potomac has traditionally been known as Northern Virginia’s “Gold Coast.” It has been home to prominent political leaders, business executives, and some of Washington’s most recognizable families.

Foreign governments are now major property owners there.

Saudi Arabia owns the historic Merrywood estate—the childhood home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis—and surrounding properties. The Saudis purchased Merrywood in 2018 for $43 million. Years earlier, Saudi representatives were already acquiring neighboring parcels to expand an existing compound. How sad that this storied historic property is now in the hands of the Saudis–purchased during the Obama administration.

Qatar also owns property in the area.

The UAE’s holdings have also continued to grow.

A 2024 Daily Wire investigation calculated that Gulf governments had acquired at least $282 million in real estate in the area, although ownership structures sometimes make determining the ultimate owner difficult. One entity, 600 CBR LLC, accumulated multiple adjoining properties. Public records identified the LLC as the legal owner, while previous real-estate reporting cited settlement documents connecting the buyer to the UAE.

That distinction—between the name appearing on a deed and the ultimate source of money behind an acquisition—is exactly why transparency matters.

Another $15 Million Purchase

There is another piece of this story that deserves attention.

In September 2025, a Kakar-linked entity purchased yet another piece of strategic property, 221 Chain Bridge Road, for $15 million. Public real-estate records confirm the $15 million sale.

We do not know who might eventually occupy or purchase a future development on that property, and it would be irresponsible to assume that it will become foreign-government property simply because the earlier McLean project did. However, it should be something our government is watching. We are.

And the pattern raises a legitimate question:

How well do Americans understand who ultimately owns some of the most valuable and strategic land surrounding our nation’s capital?

That question becomes even more important when enormous purchases are made through LLCs, private transactions, and all-cash deals.

There Is Some Oversight—But Are There Gaps?

Foreign governments cannot simply establish diplomatic property in the United States without federal oversight.

Under the Foreign Missions Act, foreign missions are required to notify the State Department’s Office of Foreign Missions before acquiring, leasing, selling, or changing the use of American real estate. The State Department can approve or disapprove those transactions and considers issues including national security, reciprocity, and applicable law.

Congress has also expanded the authority of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, to review certain foreign real-estate purchases near military installations and other sensitive locations when those transactions could create national-security risks. Treasury expanded that authority to dozens of additional military installations in 2024.

But CFIUS does not review every foreign real-estate purchase. Federal regulations contain exemptions, including certain purchases of individual housing units, and jurisdiction depends heavily upon the property, purchaser, location, and nature of the transaction.

That makes transparency all the more important.

The question is not whether every foreign buyer should automatically be viewed with suspicion. America has embassies, diplomatic residences, and foreign missions from countries all over the world, just as the United States maintains diplomatic property abroad.

The question is whether Americans—and especially communities surrounding Washington—have adequate visibility into the scale, concentration, ultimate ownership, and strategic significance of foreign-government real estate.

Following the Money Carefully

The original Daily Wire investigation also reported that Kakar’s dental companies received approximately $12 million in Medicaid payments between 2018 and mid-2023, including more than $6 million attributed to services he personally performed. The article raised questions about the juxtaposition of those taxpayer-funded payments and his real-estate development.

But correlation is not proof of financing.

Kakar told The Daily Wire, “We took loans. My dentistry has nothing to do with that … I have partners.” The reporting cited does not establish that Medicaid money paid for the mansion’s construction.

That is precisely why investigations like this should follow documents and facts, but also common-sense concerns.

There are legitimate questions.

This Is Happening in Our Backyard

Perhaps this story strikes me differently because I live here.

Northern Virginia, while outside of the DC borders, lives in its power shadow. Our communities form the landscape surrounding the capital of the United States.

The CIA is here. The Pentagon is across the river. Senior government officials live here. Diplomats live here. Major defense contractors operate here. Our neighbors are NASA scientists. FDA officials. NSA employees. Administration members. Intelligence officers. Decisions affecting the entire nation are made within a few miles of these neighborhoods, and these powerful neighbors and these strategic facilities are on the radar of other nations and watchers.

That means land is more than land.

Location matters.

Ownership matters.

Transparency matters.

And a $27.5 million mansion near one of America’s most sensitive national-security institutions should remind us that foreign acquisition of American real estate does not always begin with a foreign flag planted on an empty parcel.

Sometimes an American buyer acquires the land.

A private company develops it.

The property enters the luxury market.

And only at the end of the process does the foreign government emerge as the purchaser.

Protecting strategically important American real estate requires knowing who is buying, who is financing, who ultimately controls the property—and whether our laws have kept pace with the increasingly sophisticated ways global wealth moves into American land. This should be something that is on the radar of our own government. One reason why we must reconsider allowing foreign ownership in our nation is especially in certain critical areas. To protect our security, our infrastructure, our facilities, and our perimeters of protection.

This story is but one of many other threads of how strategic land purchases may be happening across our nation. Near military bases. Adjacent to government facilities. Abutting critical infrastructure. These land purchases – by foreign entities—should not be so easy to acquire. You can pray about those types of land or facility purchases in your own state. Pray that nefarious plans are made public. Pray that there are officials and citizens who raise a red flag of concern and speak up when something doesn’t make sense or is out of order. Pray that law enforcement and intelligence agencies pick up on these dots to connect that may need further investigation. And pray for protection over our nation.

How are you praying about foreign ownership of American land? Share your prayers and scriptures below.

(Kris Kubal is IFA’s Chief Program Officer)