Tens of Thousands of UK Properties Worth £190bn Remain Opaque Despite Crackdown on Overseas Owners

The true owners behind nearly 45,000 properties across Britain, with a combined value approaching £190 billion, remain concealed from public view in what experts warn could represent a widespread breach of recently introduced anti-money laundering legislation.

The controversy stems from the Economic Crime Act, enacted in March 2022 in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The law required foreign owners of UK property to disclose the “beneficial owner” of any real estate they hold by January 31, 2023. A beneficial owner is defined as any individual who ultimately owns or controls an overseas company that itself owns property in Britain.

By compelling overseas property holders to reveal their identities, lawmakers intended to curb the use of UK homes and commercial buildings as vehicles for laundering money or safeguarding illicit wealth. Although the legislation carries the threat of financial penalties and criminal prosecution, new analysis indicates that compliance may be falling far short of expectations.

Research conducted by the think tank Tax Policy Associates reviewed a Land Registry dataset listing 97,978 properties in England and Wales registered to offshore companies. The group then cross-checked how many of those properties had properly disclosed their ultimate owners with Companies House, as required under the law.

The findings revealed that the beneficial owner could not be identified for 43,401 properties — around 44 per cent of the total examined. In many instances, owners had either failed to register entirely, submitted registrations claiming no beneficial owner existed, or listed another offshore company or a trust as the owner.

There is no suggestion that every case constitutes a legal violation, as some corporate structures legitimately lack a single identifiable beneficial owner. However, Dan Neidle, a former tax lawyer who leads the think tank, believes that in a significant number of cases ownership is being deliberately obscured.

“Some of this will be accidental, but the evidence suggests that a significant proportion is intentional,” he writes.

“Some people are just not registering. Others are registering offshore companies as beneficial owners, rather than the individuals who really control the property.

“And over a fifth of all properties are held by trusts that fail to declare the true owner.”

Mr Neidle argues that certain properties could potentially be used for money laundering or to circumvent sanctions. He also suggests that some owners may be failing to register in order to sidestep capital gains tax liabilities when selling.

“It's very important we get to grips with this, from a tax evasion perspective as well as the more obvious sanctions-busting and money-laundering ones,” the tax expert adds.

Among overseas jurisdictions linked to property ownership in England and Wales, Jersey — a self-governing, low-tax Crown dependency — is the most common location for offshore structures. The data shows 3,234 properties connected to Jersey without a listed beneficial owner. The British Virgin Islands account for 1,165 such properties, followed by 753 tied to the Isle of Man and 685 linked to Guernsey.

Saudi Arabia records the highest proportion of unregistered beneficial owners, with 234 out of 252 properties — or 92.9 per cent — lacking proper disclosure.

London dominates the landscape of opaque ownership. Of the £188 billion worth of property in England and Wales where beneficial owners have not been adequately declared, £107 billion is located in the capital. Many of these assets are residential properties held through trusts.

Among the most valuable properties on the overseas owners register is the former Holland Park home of Richard Branson, which was purchased for £53 million in 2016 by a company based in the British Virgin Islands. Just streets away, another property was acquired in 2016 for £21 million by a Bahamas-registered company, with the listed beneficiary identified as a Cayman Islands trustee.

An apartment on Horse Guards Avenue changed hands in 2023 for £21 million when it was sold to a Cypriot company. Its beneficiaries are recorded as two individuals employed by Cypriot firms who act on behalf of an unidentified person. Another apartment in Mayfair was bought in 2021 for £20 million by an Isle of Man company, with the beneficial owner listed as an Isle of Man trustee company. A further property in Belgravia was purchased in 2017 for £16 million by a British Virgin Islands company, naming a Singapore corporate trustee as the registered beneficiary.

There is no suggestion of wrongdoing in relation to any of these individual properties.

A government spokesperson said: “We will look at this report carefully as part of our commitment to fighting illegal financial activity through the Register of Overseas Entities.

“Companies House can issue warning notices and impose financial penalties on overseas entities that fail to register or comply with ongoing requirements, and these entities are prevented from selling, leasing or raising finance over their land until they comply.”

By fLEXI tEAM