The Pandora Papers shed light on a UK property market that operates under two parallel structures. The wealthy and well connected secretly trade high-value property using offshore companies, while anyone buying a suburban semi must put their name on a public register and fork out thousands in stamp duty.
The scale of the market in property-owning companies is vast. A Transparency International study from 2015 found almost 41,000 properties in London registered to overseas companies, covering an area of 2.5 square miles. Some 89% of these properties were registered in tax havens, including 13,831 in the British Virgin Islands alone.
The Pandora Papers have identified a relatively small but significant chunk of that market – 1,500 properties held through offshore companies, and property transactions worth £4bn. They show us that this market is not the preserve of the underworld, but the favoured way of doing business among kings, former prime ministers and leading businessmen.
