Owners of 100,000 properties held by foreign shell companies unknown despite new UK laws

Legal loopholes are used to obscured the ownership of two-thirds of English and Welsh properties held by foreign shell companies

More than two-thirds of English and Welsh properties held by foreign shell companies do not report the identity of their owners, according to analysis that found significant flaws in laws meant to prevent oligarchs from hiding their wealth.

The UK government hurriedly introduced a register of overseas entities in August 2022, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, in an attempt to “flush out corrupt elites laundering money through UK property”. However, critics said there were severe flaws in the rules from the start.