Ukraine crisis: UK clampdown on Russian owners of luxury London property in wake of invasion
- Boris Johnson to target ‘Russian assets hidden in the UK’ so that ‘oligarchs in London have nowhere to hide’ as sanctions go ahead because of conflict
- UK capital dubbed ‘Londongrad’ because of all the property owned by Russians – 1,200 per cent increase since 2010 – topped only by Taiwan and mainland China
From Chelsea penthouses to Highgate mansions, Russia’s long-standing infatuation with UK real estate is evident from a cursory glance at some of the country’s priciest property transactions. The past decade has seen that trend explode.
The number of UK properties whose owners’ principal correspondence address is in Russia reached 1,127 in August 2021, according to data released by the Land Registry under Freedom of Information laws last year. That is up from 86 at the start of 2010 – a 1,200 per cent increase.
And that is likely a lowball figure. It doesn’t capture properties that are owned by companies – a structure often favoured by wealthy owners from around the world looking to camouflage their holdings.
The Ukraine conflict could finally thrust such anonymous owners into the open. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday he would push forward legislation on a long-stymied register of overseas property ownership as the UK sanctioned more than 100 Russian individuals and entities, part of a coordinated push by Western countries against Russian companies and oligarchs in the wake of that nation’s invasion of Ukraine.
The UK measures, which target everything from banks to Russia’s national air carrier, also include a new unit in the National Crime Agency to target “Russian assets hidden in the UK,” Johnson said. It will mean “oligarchs in London have nowhere to hide.”
A spokesperson for the NCA said the agency “will use all legislative options and tactics available to the agency to pursue the assets of corrupt elites”. A registry would be a marked shift for the UK’s often opaque real estate market where offshore entities can shield the identities of owners.
More than 85,000 properties are owned by offshore entities, according to Transparency International, a non-profit organisation. That is despite a series of tax measures introduced since 2013 that punish owners that hold properties via companies rather than in their own names.
