True scale of Russian ownership in ‘Londongrad’ becomes clearer
The capital is well-known as a playground for Russia’s ultra-rich but the true scale of “Londongrad” could be far greater than official records show. Exclusive analysis compiled for Homes & Property has revealed there are 1,895 Russian-owned properties in London, much higher than official figures of 795.
The existing records on Russian ownership have long been considered a lowball estimation as they only include those which show up in Land Registry or Companies House searches. The data by Harness Data Intelligence widens the search to include properties owned by companies registered offshore.
It found 17,055 records for Russian-owned assets in the UK, with the most in London. The city with the next highest was Liverpool with 1,703. There is no suggestion that any of these data records have links to the Putin regime. However, the scale of Russian investment in the UK has come under greater scrutiny since the invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions on oligarchs with connections to the Kremlin.
The data also reveals the hotspots for Russian-owned property in the capital such as Westminster, which has 218 such properties. The borough is home to Eaton Square, which earned the nickname Red Square due to its popularity with Russian billionaires.
The borough with the second highest number of Russian-owned properties is Lambeth at 112, followed by Brent (81) and Camden (80). Other areas with high records include Kensington and Chelsea (74), Southwark (74) and Croydon (75).
Edwin Groenendaal, chief executive of Harness, said: “We aren’t saying any of these ownerships are illegal, but the bottom line is, if you wanted to know the extent of UK ownership by these people of interest, you have to cast a wide net indeed.”
Finding out which of the UK’s Russian-owned assets are connected to sanctioned billionaires is difficult, as many are registered to anonymous offshore companies with complex ownership structures.
Transparency International research found that since 2016, £1.5 billion of property in Britain has been bought by Russians accused of corruption or with links to the Kremlin.