Overseas-owned properties shift from single homes to larger developments

In a new study published in Environment and Planning B, the researchers found that overseas ownership of single properties dropped by 17 per cent between 2015 and 2025, from around  36,000 units to around 30,000. At the same time, investment in multi-property units increased by eight per cent from about 66,000 units to about 71,000 units. Overall, overseas ownership of residential properties in England and Wales has hovered between about 1.2% and 1.4% of total titles during this time.

In 2015 the UK government began regularly releasing the ‘Overseas Companies that Own Property in England and Wales Dataset,’ containing comprehensive information on offshore-owned property investments. However, the inconsistency of the data’s format made it very difficult to use. The data comes from a disparate range of sources, including from citizens, corporate bodies, conveyancers, deeds and other documents.

Now a team of UCL researchers have developed an algorithm which can trawl through the thousands of entries and produce usable data that can be easily analysed.

Their analysis has given new insight into where offshore-owned properties were registered, the UK hotspots for overseas investment, the type and value of properties owned by overseas entities, and changes over time.

Lead author Dr Jonathan Bourne (UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis) said: “Our research has been able to unlock this dataset and turn it into the powerful accountability tool it was meant to be.

“It shows that effective government policy has had a big impact on offshore-owned property in the UK.

“Greater transparency and closing tax loopholes help to reduce economic crime and prevent speculative inflation of property, while ensuring that offshore property owners pay their fair share of taxes, just like ordinary Britons do.”

What’s changed

One of the biggest shifts the researchers identified over the 2015-2025 study period was a trend away from investments in expensive single detached homes and towards units in multi-property residences, such as blocks of flats or apartment complexes.

Historically, overseas entities have invested primarily in expensive, ultra-luxury single detached homes in central London, which the researchers say can be used to conceal or launder money.

Though the combined total value of all overseas-owned residential properties rose from £64 billion to £80 billion over the last decade, the average values of these properties themselves have declined from about 2.4 times the national average to 1.9 times the national average, indicating a shift away from high-priced standalone (detached) houses.

The researchers stress that these property values are conservative estimates as they reflect estimates of assessed values of the properties, rather than their market values.

Dr Bourne said: “There have been big changes in the overseas ownership of UK properties over the last decade.

“Expensive luxury homes are not the highly sought after investments they once were for overseas owners. Government transparency policies seem to be driving this, making these kinds of properties less appealing.”

Overseas owners overwhelmingly invest in London, which is home to 45% of all property titles owned by overseas landholders in England and Wales and 81% of their value.

These investments are also very concentrated, as just two of London’s boroughs make up 50% of the total invested value across all of England and Wales’s 318 Local Authorities.

Westminster and Kensington & Chelsea are home to 34% and 16% respectively of the total value of overseas international investment in residential property, worth an estimated £39 billion combined in 2025.

Other cities including Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester have seen substantial increases in overseas investment, while Birmingham has seen a decline over the same period.

For comparison, the researchers also looked at the offshore ownership of non-residential properties, such as land, businesses and car parks over the same period. These made up a much smaller portion of the market and saw little change over the course of the decade.

Who owns what

The top overseas holders of UK properties are the British Virgin Islands, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, and Jersey by a significant margin, making up an average of 67% of all overseas-owned properties.

The researchers say the actual owners themselves are likely to be British nationals who own the majority of properties through entities set up in these locations, but a lack of transparency often makes it difficult to trace who the owners are.

Over the decade of the study, the three crown dependencies (Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey) have all seen their share in ownership grow, while the British Virgin Islands, an overseas territory known as an offshore financial centre because of its banking secrecy, has seen its share in ownership drop.

Jersey and Guernsey are primarily used to incorporate large-scale development and multi-property entities, while the Isle of Man and British Virgin Islands are favoured for incorporating single homes.

The researchers put the British Virgin Islands’ decline in ownership down to government efforts to increase transparency in recent years.

The data also reveals other surprising insights, the researchers say.

Around March 2022, Guernsey saw a steep, 10% increase in property ownership in just a few months. It was dubbed by the researchers as “the Guernsey Bump,” and while its precise cause was unclear, it roughly corresponded with the passing of the 2023 Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act which may have affected the market, they add.

Similarly, they also found a feature in the data they termed “the Mauritius Cliff” where 91% of properties owned by entities in Mauritius were sold off over a matter of about six months between September 2017 and February 2018. This was precipitated by the passing of the Double Taxation Relief (Mauritius) Order 2018 which closed a tax loophole exempting Mauritius-owned properties from certain taxes.

Dr Bourne added: “There’s still a great deal of work to be done to make financial data around overseas-owned properties as transparent as possible.

“Until that happens, the UK property market will continue to be subject financial speculation and efforts to hide money, at the expense of families looking to own a home.”

This research was conducted in collaboration with Dr Rex McKenzie and Dr Andrea Ingianni from Kingston University.

Links

• Research in Environment and Planning B
• Dr Jonathan Bourne's academic pofile
• UCL Bartlett Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis
• UCL Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment

Image

• Credit: Matthew Shepherdson via iStock Photo

Media Contact

Michael Lucibella

E: m.lucibella [at] ucl.ac.uk