Anti-money laundering

Ownership of over 40,000 London properties shrouded in secrecy

The report from Transparency International UK and Thomson Reuters identified 44,022 land titles owned by 23,653 overseas companies in Land Registry data. Of these, 91 per cent of companies, holding 40,098 of the land titles between them, were registered in a secrecy jurisdiction, such as the British Virgin Islands, Jersey or Panama.

In secrecy jurisdictions, information about who owns companies is not publicly available, making it difficult to trace the true ownership of assets. While there are plenty of legitimate reasons for setting up corporates in one of these countries, the report noted that such establishments are also sometimes used by less scrupulous individuals wishing to launder money.