The Esplanade isn’t much to look at. Just 800 metres long, the street in St Helier, Jersey, is a mixture of nondescript low rise new builds that block out the view to the nearby docks. It’s home to the island's only bus station, as well as tyre shops, budget cafes, run-down Indian restaurants and skeezy nightclubs — all occasionally interspersed with the odd luxury apartment or understated office block.
It’s also where 2,224 of London’s most expensive and recognisable properties are all registered to. At least, that’s according to the official records.
While it's well-known to the average Londoner that every inch of this city — from cavernous super-basements to the air above Canary Wharf offices — has become a prized asset for offshore investors, what hasn't been known is who those investors are. Due to lax regulation, it’s been near-impossible to find the real owners of these buildings, who often hide behind firms registered in foreign tax havens like Jersey. In fact, much of who owns our city has long been utterly opaque.
But now, The Londoner can reveal that some 32,611 properties in London are owned by overseas entities. We can do this because a recent change in the law is forcing these foreign companies to register their real owners. We’ve spent the last week, using data compiled and shared with us by Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates, to go through thousands of those overseas entities to see who has bought up properties in the capital.
What we found was startling: a story that concerns some of London’s most iconic pubs, Camden market, President Trump's golf buddy and even an Oxford Street Harry Potter store whose landlord is seemingly the sanctioned Libyan government.
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