While the majority of foreign-owned businesses choosing to invest in Britain have nothing to hide, the government wants transactions to be totally transparent, removing the possibility of criminals using these shell companies for money laundering and corruption.

With the National Crime Agency announcing foreign criminals were pushing up the UK house prices by laundering billions of pounds through the purchase of expensive properties, Cameron announced plans to publish Land Registry data setting out which foreign companies own land and property in England and Wales.

Roughly £122 billion of property in England and Wales is owned by offshore companies with more than 36,000 homes in London registered to offshore accounts. This information is currently available to the public on the Land Registry site for a nominal fee.

Wellbelove Quested have many years of experience dealing with foreign purchasers and the majority of buyers use a company vehicle for tax reasons or as anonymity for extra security. In our industry we adhere to such strict Anti-Money Laundering Regulations the chances of criminal activity is very slim.  However, if we can add more transparency to the property industry then it is a welcome step.