Excerpts:
"The map shows all land and property registered in England and Wales in the name of an offshore company between 2005 and July 2014. It uses data released following Freedom of Information requests from Private Eye and expert work by software engineer Anna Powell-Smith."
Interactive map of UK Land Holdings sold offshore 2005-2014
"Freehold properties are indicated by orange shapes covering the exact area of the property. Leasehold properties are shown by purple pin points. The map includes properties owned by any overseas company, not just those based in tax havens, sometimes for legitimate reasons. Even the freehold on the saintly Eye's premises, owned by an Australian company, appears. Highlighting an individual property's details also provides a link to email the Eye with any further information readers may have about the property.
All data is from Land Registry records, which occasionally contain errors. "Price paid" figures may be totals for sales including other properties. When a property title has been identified, the underlying Land Registry record can be obtained for a £3 fee from www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry."
"Property investment and development companies routinely use offshore corporate vehicles to own major buildings to achieve capital gains tax and stamp duty advantages. When, for example, 1 Cabot Square, the original Canary Wharf tower, was bought by the Qatar Investment Authority in 2012 as part of a financing deal, it was acquired by Luxembourg company OCS Investment sarl. Scores of leaseholds on other parts of the docklands financial district are also held offshore."
"Borodin is one of scores of wealthy Russians who have bought English property through offshore companies. When the Eye looked at one of Britain's richest streets, Kensington Palace Gardens, it emerged that one home had been acquired (reportedly for a nine-figure sum) by the oil-to-media businessman who topped the most recent Sunday Times Rich List, Leonard Blavatnik.
He used a Delaware company, while neighbour, fellow oligarch and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich bought his pile through a Cyprus company. Since 2005 six other properties on the same road have been bought by BVI companies, two by companies registered in St Vincent and Grenadines and one in the Bahamas.
It is not known who is behind these latter purchases, nor where their money came from, but whoever they were they found an almost indecently willing seller at the heart of the British establishment. The freeholds on Kensington Palace Gardens are owned by The Crown Estate, which means they are legally property of the Queen but with all profits going to the Treasury, less 25 percent of operating profit which since 2012 has replaced Brenda's civil list payments.
Such a body which also owns prime London property from Westminster to Hyde Park and swathes of coastal Britain might be expected to show some reluctance to sell offshore (even to the Queen's own tax havens). But the Eye discovered that in the two years up to March 2014, it sold £135m worth to offshore companies.
In total the Eye found 120 former Crown Estate properties that, directly or indirectly, have ended up owned by companies in tax havens including Panama and the Seychelles. The real owners of most remain entirely anonymous."
All material © Private Eye 2015
