Around 80,460 homes across England and Wales are registered to firms situated in offshore tax havens
Research from property developer, Stripe Property Group, assessed the number and value of properties across England and Wales owned by firms registered in overseas tax havens, as well as how circumstances have changed in the past year.
The developer found that property with a market value of £39.8 billion is held by overseas firms that are not subject to UK domestic tax laws and that companies based in the British Virgin Islands alone hold £13.23 billion of the housing stock.
Around 80,460 homes across England and Wales are registered to firms situated in offshore tax havens.
While firms in the British Virgin Islands have bought some of the most valuable stock, by volume Jersey is the dominating hotspot.
Nearly 21,602 properties are owned through firms registered in Jersey, exceeding the British Virgin Island total of 20,777.
The next five biggest tax havens that own property in England and Wales, in terms of value as well as volume, are Guernsey (£5.50 billion and 12,877), the Isle of Man (£4.49 billion and 10,393), Luxembourg (£1.07 billion and 2,446), Singapore (£908.13 million and 2,030), and Hong Kong (£851.09 million and 1.632).
In terms of tax havens where firms are freshly buying up property, the Cayman Islands tops the list.
The number of properties owned by firms registered to the Caribbean-based British Overseas Territory has risen by 66 between August 2022 and August 2023, an increase of 4.8 per cent.
Next comes Ireland, with 4.4 per cent more homes, followed by France, with a 4.2 per cent rise.
At the other end of the spectrum overseas ownership has dropped from firms in Bermuda by -19.5 per cent, while there were major declines in Luxembourg and Malta, at -10.5 per cent and -9.7 per cent respectively.
In terms of volume, the tax haven buying up the most property was Jersey at 568, followed by Guernsey at 306 and the Isle of Man at 125.
In spite of its firms holding the most valuable stock the British Virgin Islands lost the most homes YoY, with a -400 decline.
MD of Stripe Property Group, James Forrester, said that the government has failed in its remit of building enough homes to address the housing crisis and as a result, many potential buyers have seen their goal of homeownership pushed far beyond because of record rates of house price growth in recent years.
He added: So they can be forgiven for feeling a bit aggrieved at the fact that there is a considerable level of homes owned by offshore firms located in tax havens.
