People with addresses in tax havens have bought swathes of property across Wales, data has shown.
Figures obtained by the Centre for Public Data (CFPD) show that people with addresses overseas have snapped up homes and commercial property in all areas of Wales in the last decade.
These largest rise in overseas ownership is from people with addresses in low-tax jurisdictions like Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man or the British Virgin Islands.
The amount of property they own in Welsh cities like Cardiff as well as sought-after visitor spots like Carmarthenshire has risen up to five-fold in the last decade.
Welsh property does not appear to be popular among buyers from Russia, who have bought up property heavily in parts of London and northern English cities like Liverpool and Bradford. Russians own 10 properties in Conwy, one in Ceredigion and one in Gwynedd, according to the data.
The data was obtained by the CFPD through Freedom of Information Act requests to the Land Registry. The Centre, which says it is a “non-partisan organisation with a practical mission to help the UK’s public data work better for everyone”, said it showed the need for better data on UK property.
Overseas demand has played a part in rapidly rising UK property prices, particularly in the centre of London where data shows tax haven buyers own a huge amount of real estate. People registered in Jersey own 1,564 properties in the Westminster alone with British Virgin Island buyers owning 1,190 properties and people in Guernsey 862.
Cardiff has the most foreign-owned property in Wales with 158 properties registered to Jersey – up from just 32 in January 2010. A further 59 owners are from Gurnsey (up from 12 in 2010). Yet the data also shows buyers from tax havens have snapped up property in almost every area of Wales in the last decade.
Swansea has 55 properties owned by individuals with a correspondence address from Jersey up from just eight in 2010. There have also been 33 buyers from Gibraltar, 17 from the Isle of Man, six from the Turks and Caicos Islands and five from the British Virgin Islands.
In 2021, according to CFPD’s data, 247,016 titles across England and Wales were registered to individuals with an overseas correspondence address. This represents nearly 1% of all registered titles. The number has more than doubled since 2010, when such individuals owned around 0.4% of all titles in England and Wales.
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Three-quarters of the titles are registered to individuals with addresses in just 20 countries, with the main groups being the Crown dependencies and British Overseas Territories, which are Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man and the British Virgin Islands.
Buyers from Hong Kong own the most UK property of all overseas buyers registered at Land Registry of England and Wales, followed by Jersey, Singapore and the USA. Guernsey was in sixth place, Isle of Man was ninth, and the British Virgin Islands in 13th.
In May 2019, it was announced that the Channel Islands were “among the worst tax havens worldwide”.
Jersey is one of the biggest offshore financial centres in the world. With its autonomy, the island has maintained a sense of financial independence from the rest of the UK for centuries, with wealthy Brits moving or transferring wealth there due to the lack of taxes. Residents of the island pay around 20% of income tax rates.
27 miles away, Guernsey has also been recognised as a ‘tax haven’. The general rate of tax payable by Guernsey companies is zero, with the rate of corporation tax payable also around 0%. On the island, there are no capital gains tax, inheritance tax, added tax or withholding tax. Like Jersey, income tax is generally around 20%.
The Isle of Man is independent of and not subject to laws passed by the UK Government regarding direct taxation and fiscal affairs. For this reason, offshore investments on the island sustain no liability to taxes, investment income or capital gains.
And in the British Virgin Islands, the territory has up-to-date company laws and regulations that have been specifically designed to attract offshore investors. It has incorporated nearly 40% of the worlds offshore companies and has formed over 600,000 companies since its began forming non-resident companies.
The areas of Wales with the most property owned by people with addresses in tax havens
(Image: Matthew Horwood)
Cardiff had most properties that were registered to individuals with an overseas correspondence address. 158 titles were registered to individuals with a correspondence address from Jersey – a remarkable jump from 32 in January 2010.
In the Welsh capital, buyers from Guernsey came in second with 59 (up from 12). A further. 46 were registered with a correspondence address from the Isle of Man, 10 from the British Virgin Islands and eight from other areas of the Channel Islands. There were six registered with a correspondence address from Gibraltar.
There has also been a huge rise in buyers from Kuwait (up from two in 2010 to 30 last year), the United Arab Emirates (up from 17 to 35). No-one with a correspondence address in Taiwan owned property in Cardiff in 2010 but now 24 properties in the city are Taiwan-owned.
Other areas popular with overseas buyers include Carmarthenshire. In total, 60 properties are registered to someone with a Jersey address – this figure was seven times bigger than in January 2010 when there were only eight. A further 27 were registered to someone from Gibraltar, 22 from Isle of Man, 11 from Guernsey, and two each from the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
In Newport, 58 Land Registry titles were registered to individuals with a correspondence address from Jersey, in comparison to six back in January 2010. Some 12 titles were to Guernsey, 10 to the British Virgin Islands, which was closely followed by nine to the Isle of Man. Four were registered with a correspondence address from Gibraltar and three from the Channel Islands.
(Image: Jonathon Hill)
In August 2021, 55 Land Registry titles were registered to individuals with a correspondence address from Jersey in Swansea – the highest amount throughout the county. In January 2010, the county recorded eight titles registered to a Jersey address.
Correspondence address from Gibraltar were linked to 33 properties, 23 from Guernsey and 17 from the Isle of Man as well as six from the Turks and Caicos Islands and five from the British Virgin Islands.
(Image: scu)
The highest amount in the north of Wales were in Conwy and Flintshire. In Conwy, 46 titles were registered to a Jersey correspondence address, while 46 were registered to Guernsey correspondence address.
In Powys, 25 Land Registry titles were registered to individuals with a Jersey correspondence address in August 2021. There were five from a Guernsey correspondence address, three from the Isle of Man, and two each from the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands.
People from the USA own the most property in Pembrokeshire, with 44 properties, followed by Ireland, France and Australia. Americans are also the foreign buyers with the most property in Gwynedd (33 properties), followed by Australia, France and Canada. On Anglesey, Irish buyers are the most common with 17 properties followed by the Isle of Man, Jersey and France.
In Ceredigion, people from Cyprus own 18 properties followed by America (16), Ireland (12) and Canada (12)..
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