Revealed: the tycoons and world leaders who built secret UK property empires The Panama Papers show how billions of pounds of offshore cash flooded the British property market

The president of the United Arab Emirates has secretly built one of the single biggest offshore property empires in Britain, the Panama Papers reveal.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan owns dozens of central London properties worth more than £1.2bn through offshore companies supplied by Mossack Fonseca.

His property portfolio runs from the BHS building on Oxford Street to the designer outlets of Bruton Street and Mayfair’s Berkeley Square estate, where his tenants include Hermès, Stella McCartney and Annabel’s nightclub.

World leaders, business people and celebrities are among those whose anonymous ownership of London property has been exposed by the massive leak of the Panama law firm’s data on offshore companies.

The prime minister of Pakistan, Iraq’s former interim prime minister and the president of the Nigerian senate are among those whose links to London property are detailed by the files.

More than £170bn of UK property is now held overseas. Much of that is in London, where unprecedented house price inflation has transformed homes into highly profitable investments for asset speculators. Nearly one in 10 of the 31,000 tax haven companies that own British property are linked to Mossack Fonseca.

Owning UK property through offshore companies is perfectly legal. However in some parts of the country, particularly in London, the use of offshore companies to purchase properties as investment assets rather than homes has helped fuel house price inflation.

Around 2,800 Mossack Fonseca companies appear on a Land Registry list of overseas property owners dating from 2014. The companies are connected to more than 6,000 title deeds worth at least £7bn, although the true value is likely to be greater since many property deeds do not specify the price paid for the property. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing or unethical behaviour on the part of any of the offshore property owners identified by the files.
It was previously known that the ruling family of the UAE, based in Abu Dhabi, had made inroads into the UK property market.

The president’s father, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, oversaw the purchase of the Berkeley Square estate of commercial and residential property in the heart of Mayfair in 2005, and two years ago it was reported that the Nahyan family had become the largest Mayfair landowners after the Duke of Westminster.

But the leaked files reveal their property interests extend far beyond this, with a string of commercial units on Sloane Street and a £160m stretch of property along Kensington’s De Vere Gardens, along with other holdings in Marylebone Road, Richmond and Oxford Street.

A 2014 email from Nahyan’s lawyers names him as the beneficial owner of a dozen offshore companies that also appear in the Land Registry’s list of overseas companies that own British property. Ninety title deeds, some of which include dozens of properties, are linked to the Nahyan companies.

In some cases Nahyan’s property owning companies were themselves owned by other offshore companies, which held their assets in trust for the president. His identity was anonymised in all but a few documents. “We do not, as you know, refer to His Highness by name in our work for the companies and do so by exception here, in order to assist you,” Nahyan’s lawyer wrote in one letter.

The president did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Also named in the files is Mariam Safdar, the married name of the daughter of the Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif. A 2012 email identifies Safdar, usually known as Mariam Nawaz Sharif, as having been the beneficial owner of two offshore companies that each own flats in Avenfield House on Park Lane.

The Sharif family has previously denied any impropriety in relation to the property, saying they were bought because the Sharif children were studying in London. On Monday the Sharif family issued a statement declaring that Safdar “is not a beneficiary or owner of any of these companies”. Separately Sharif’s son, Hussain, said that the family had done nothing wrong. “It is according to British law and laws of other countries that it is a legal way to avoid unnecessary tax via offshore companies,” he said.

Much more at:  http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/05/panama-papers-world-leaders-tycoons-secret-property-empires?CMP=share_btn_tw



This is the real reason for the huge rise in London property prices, which in turn inflates the price of property in the rest of the UK.

How is this connected to tax avoidance? If he's prepared to pay a large amount for properties, it's supply and demand.

Because it's another way of secreting their money in other countries, some to avoid tax, some to money launder.

sassy wrote:Because it's another way of secreting their money in other countries, some to avoid tax, some to money launder.

To avoid tax in their own country you mean?

I'm not being awkward by the way. I deal with my own tax affairs, but I haven't read up about tax evasion issue in detail yet.

The whole thing is run by companies in tax havens for the rich all over the world.  It is only just coming to light how huge this is, and world wide.  But what has come to light is that our law rules have turned this country into a tax haven for others, which is what the Conservatives wanted, and the result is our stability has been completely undermined.

The property issue is a different one IMO. Even if this didn't involve tax evasion, he'd still be buying up property in London wouldn't he?

I really think that property prices is one thing which needs to be regulated - market forces aren't working.

sassy wrote:The whole thing is run by companies in tax havens for the rich all over the world.  It is only just coming to light how huge this is, and world wide.  But what has come to light is that our law rules have turned this country into a tax haven for others, which is what the Conservatives wanted, and the result is our stability has been completely undermined.

Doesn't he have to pay taxes here on any of his businesses which are in the UK though?

The property issue is at the heart of it.

Raggamuffin wrote:

sassy wrote:The whole thing is run by companies in tax havens for the rich all over the world.  It is only just coming to light how huge this is, and world wide.  But what has come to light is that our law rules have turned this country into a tax haven for others, which is what the Conservatives wanted, and the result is our stability has been completely undermined.

Doesn't he have to pay taxes here on any of his businesses which are in the UK though?

No, because they say they pay their taxes in their own country, like Starbucks etc did.

sassy wrote:

Raggamuffin wrote:

Doesn't he have to pay taxes here on any of his businesses which are in the UK though?

No, because they say they pay their taxes in their own country, like Starbucks etc did.

Don't they have to declare that in detail on their tax return here?

sassy wrote:The property issue is at the heart of it.

Yes, but I don't think it would make a difference where they pay taxes, unless they would be too broke to buy property here if they paid more tax.

Rags, I suggest you do some reading, not being nasty, because that isn't what is happening.  They buy property with the money saved by avoiding taxes to money launder it, hence the higher the price the better, because the more money they can launder.

The Sharif family has previously denied any impropriety in relation to the property, saying they were bought because the Sharif children were studying in London.

How much property do they need?

sassy wrote:Rags, I suggest you do some reading, not being nasty, because that isn't what is happening.  They buy property with the money saved by avoiding taxes to money launder it, hence the higher the price the better, because the more money they can launder.

OK, but I think they'd still be loaded whether they pay tax or not, so they'd still buy the property.

Maybe people from other countries should be restricted as to how much property they can buy here?

Good Grief...thought I was seriously losing my mind~~~I'd read a post and leave ~ come back and find the post missing and another post from someone else; I HAD NO IDEA THAT THERE WERE 2 EXACT NAMED TOPICS GOING ON AT THE SAME TIME...

Makes this ole' gray head very confused but now that I'm aware of the two of them...I'll just stay over at the other one...can't keep jumping back & forth~  UGH

One is about property, one about the taxes, lol that did make me giggle!

I'm glad it's not just me who gets the threads mixed up.

Make me 'GIGGLE'??? 

Good Gravy...thought I was having a mental - moment; and that's rather dangerous in my condition! 

4EVER2 wrote:Make me 'GIGGLE'??? 

Good Gravy...thought I was having a mental - moment; and that's rather dangerous in my condition! 

Lol, the giggling was about how confusing it is when we have more than one thread on the same subject albeit about different parts of that subject.   Don't worry, you are no more confused that the rest of us, I just put my cup of tea in the fridge and the milk on the coffee table!