Money laundering inflating UK house prices by up to £11,000 

Money laundering in the UK property market is inflating home prices, making homeownership less attainable, according to the latest by SmartSearch.  

Illicit funds have raised UK property prices by £3,000 on average and £11,000 in London.  

Since 2016, over £11 billion in suspicious wealth, largely through shell companies in British Overseas Territories, has entered UK real estate, with more than 87,000 properties (valued at £100 billion plus) owned by anonymous firms, 40% of which are in London.  

Many estate agents fail to comply with the money laundering regulations, with nearly 200 fined over £1 million for breaches, mostly for trading while unregistered.  

Analysis of the HMRC Supervised Business Register of 25,000 UK estate agents shows 14% (3,400) lack proper AML oversight, and over half of registered agents admit they don’t always verify business clients, and 3%, around 650 never do, exposing the market to front companies.