The £100m sale of the long leasehold of 77 Grosvenor Street, W1, to Brookfield has exposed the shortcomings in the government’s efforts to expose the true owners of UK properties.
Last year, offshore companies that own property in England and Wales were required to name their ultimate owner in a register of overseas entities.
But the deal struck in May shows how murky some of those ownerships still are.
While the freehold of the property is owned by Grosvenor, the leasehold was sold by Wilbur Real Estate 5, which bought it in 2009 for £89m. Wilbur Real Estate 5 is owned by Lansac, which in turn is owned by Cypriot trust service provider Page Trustees.
Lansac was only set up 18 months ago, some 12 years after Wilbur bought the lease.
A similarly named Cayman company – Wilbur Real Estate 7 – formed part of Kazakh businessman Bulat Utemuratov’s family office Verny Capital.
As of mid-April, 15% of the 32,440 overseas companies that own properties in Britain had failed to register their beneficial owner, according to Companies House.
