Private Eye publishes data on offshore property purchasing in England

There’s an interesting interactive map over at Private Eye today. It shows all acquisitions of property in England by offshore funds.

It is extremely detailed, you can zoom in and have a look at your own area.

http://www.private-eye.co.uk/registry

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Blimey, there is a hell of a lot of leasehold in Liverpool and of course London, but much of the rest is leasehold. Any reason for this?

Just had a closer look, Liverpool, Cambridge and Oxford have a high leasehold. Got to be the universities :wink:

That can’t be right, Harry’s house on Sandbanks isn’t green or pink!!

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Originally posted by @BTripz

That can’t be right, Harry’s house on Sandbanks isn’t green or pink!!

That would be an “Off Paw” account.

(Where did I leave that coat?)

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No, “off paw” hit just fine with me.

Then you can have a look at where you could afford to buy a house on your wage if you don’t have an offshore account.

unaffordable-country-where-can-you-afford-to-buy-a-house

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Originally posted by @Intiniki

Then you can have a look at where you could afford to buy a house on your wage if you don’t have an offshore account.

unaffordable-country-where-can-you-afford-to-buy-a-house

Interesting things about that: if you follow the graphical trend you see that in 10 years the proportion of unaffordable properties increased dramatically and in the period 2000-04 the same wage (£25k) had a reduction of almost half in the numbers of available houses.

I have no figures for wage inflation during the period but I’ll allow 5% (possibly high) because it was a ‘period of prosperity’ but tracking this I would go from 56% of properties out of reach to 89% so even adjusting for increased wages there is a very large jump.

So this is an interesting area of investigation. Anyone know of any worthwhile studies on this?

I am unsure about the undoubted correlation of leasehold v student numbers as commented on early on in this thread: Southampton has a very high relative student population, does it not? As will other cities and presumably on top of that there will be houses for those new to a city, those (increasingly) who do not 'buy into (literally and figuratively) the housing market as was/is and so on.

There’s even one in Bitterne Park. Think I’m going to have to burn it down.

So here’s an interesting discovery.

Aside from finding out that my neighbour but one is an offshore tax dodger, it seems there’s a flat on the Queen Caroline estate - a large council estate right by Hammersmith tube - that’s also owned by an offshore company.

A council flat. A flat intended for working people in the city. Now in the hands of Axis Investments Ltd in Anguilla - a Caribbean island with no property taxes, corporation tax, or indeed any form of tax at all either on individuals or companies.

I looked up Axis. It’s a service company. So it in turn doesn’t own the property either. Who does? No one can know - it’s a tax-haven-protected secret.

The symbolism of that is breathtaking, especially as a case study in how wealth in Britain has been redistributed from the less well off to the spectacularly well off - and all tied up neatly in a tax-free bow.

Unbelievable.

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No wonder there’s no white working class left in London.

You haven’t quite mastered the numbnuts-ness of the original, but good effort!

Also, I wouldn’t say that too loudly around the estates in Hammersmith, which have large Irish and Polish working class communities. Maybe they’re not the right kind of white, but they’ve been established in Hammersmith for over a century and sixty years respectively.

Anyway, more on the 4-bedroom flat: it was sold in 2010 for £298,000 and zoopla now estimates its value at £520,000 - which is actually the same price as in a studio (that is, no bedroom) flat in the private riverside development it now overlooks. You can rent it for a shade under £3,000 per month (although some tenant is currently paying close to that figure). Council tenants pay around £5-600 per month for an equivalent flat.

Tax dodge flat