Is London real estate being used as a tax haven by the global elite?

The list of complaints of the London-bound commuter is long. Trains are often late or canceled. The price of tickets rises ever higher regardless of performance.

Overcrowding is routine — as are blaring announcements stating that you will be imprisoned for fare evasion or “threats to our staff.” Life would be so much more pleasant if you could find a place in central London. But the cherry on the sundae of this misery: Many of the apartments you see as you pull into your destination sit empty because they are being used as investments rather than residences.

Our London commuter is at the sharp end of a global problem: Anonymous overseas corporations buying property in desirable urban locations (New York, Paris, Tokyo, Singapore Dubai, and, surprisingly, Oslo, are some of the other ones); the purpose: lower tax burdens. It has grown substantially since the gradual introduction, in the 2010s, of a new global tax regime — the Common Reporting Standard on offshore investment, which requires banks to share information with the account holder’s tax authorities. The CRS was intended to be “the most comprehensive policy ever to tackle tax evasion ,” with more than 100 jurisdictions now automatically exchanging information, but it contains a big loophole: It excludes foreign real-estate assets.

The result is all too predictable: a massive shift of offshore assets into real estate, often owned by shell companies, generally representing individuals or families with the mos.