Property Flashcards
Opening sound bite
(A) Property is a key risk area for the UK. From Abacha to the Gaddafis, corrupt leaders have used shell companies and trusts to hide their identities and safeguard stolen fortunes, often in the housing market.
(B) Corrupt money can be used to buy British property without scrutiny or accountability. This just makes life easier for corrupt individuals looking to hide their stolen funds and buy a London lifestyle.
What do we want?
The Land Registry should require those who purchase property to declare who the real (beneficial) owners are.
How much UK property can be traced to tax havens?
(A) At least £122bn of property in England and Wales is held through companies in offshore tax havens where ownership is difficult to trace.
(B) Nearly two out of three of the 91,248 foreign-company owned properties in England and Wales are held via the British Virgin Islands and Channel Island structures. Just under two-thirds of the offshore-owned property by value is in Greater London, with 27% in the City of Westminster .
How much Central London property is bought by foreign buyers?
- Foreign buyers bought up to 75% of new homes in central London in a recent 12 month period
- Foreign buyers reportedly accounted for 49% of all properties, new and existing, worth more than £1m in central London over the same period.
Bishops Avenue
A media investigation revealed an estimated 350 million worth of vacant properties on a prestigious London road ranked last year as the second most expensive street in Britain:
- The empty buildings include a row of 10 mansions worth £73 million, which have stood largely unused since they were bought between 1989 and 1993.
- Most of the properties are registered to companies in the British Virgin Islands, Curaçao, the Bahamas, Panama and the Channel Islands, allowing international owners to remain anonymous.
Reporting of suspicious activity
The volumes of SARs submitted by some sectors are far too low considering the scale of money laundering into and through the UK:
• In 2012-13, Estate Agents filed 215 SARs (0.07% of all SARs submitted), despite the large volume of overseas buyers. This compares with over 250,000 fielded by the banks in the same period.
