By Lisa Lopata, Esq., Checkpoint News

The New Mexico Court of Appeals held that a university student housing project was not exempt from property tax because it was not used for educational purposes as required by the New Mexico Constitution. The student housing project was built, managed and operated by a real estate investment trust (REIT) that held a leasehold interest in the property under a contract with a New Mexico state university that held a fee simple interest. (American Campus Communities, Inc. v. Bernalillo County Assessor, N.M. Ct. App., Dkt. No. A-1-CA-42053, 11/12/2025.)

At the start of the project, the county assessor notified the REIT the properties that were part of the project were tax exempt because the university owned the improvements. After the project was done, however, the county assessor billed the REIT for eight years of property taxes. Constitution of the State of N.M. Art. VIII § 3 provides that “all property used for educational or charitable purposes [is] exempt from taxation.” Neither the REIT nor the university applied for property tax exemptions, but protested the assessments, claiming the project’s properties were exempt under the state constitution. A lower court affirmed the property tax assessment.

To dig deeper, visit the original article on the Thomson Reuters blog.