Compliance
Select Committee flags five money laundering loopholes
160 properties worth over £4bn have been 'identified as being purchased by high corruption-risk individuals', reports the Joint Committee on the Draft Registration of Overseas Entities Bill
On the changing face of luxury property marketing
Targeting a specific buyer demographic is no longer a case of advertising in the right magazines, notes Simon Deen; the world has moved on, and buying patterns have been forever changed;
Criminal gangs have been laundering billions through Vancouver’s runaway property market
Government of British Columbia faces calls to tighten up its laws as experts warn that at least £3bn was laundered via its real estate market last year, by some of the world's biggest underworld organisations…
Carrington on Q1: Sliding stamp duty receipts and a Brexit fiasco
SDLT was brought in to cool the market, but this one size-fits-all approach has neither worked for the London market nor the Treasury, says LonRes Chairman William Carrington
Opinions sought on new money-laundering rules for high-end letting agents
The EU's Fifth Money Laundering Directive is slated to come into play in January, requiring UK letting agents dealing in rents above €10k per month to carry out AML checks on their clients.
HMRC hasn’t investigated many estate agents over money laundering
'Everybody’s talking about money laundering but it seems like nobody’s doing anything about it' says law firm Fieldfisher after finding out exactly how many investigations have been carried out in…
£100bn of UK property is ‘secretly’ owned
Global Witness analyses Land Registry data to highlight the scale of property ownership by 'anonymous companies registered in tax havens'
Countrywide fined £215k in HMRC crackdown
UK's largest estate agency penalised for failing to comply with money laundering regulations; HMRC carries out week-long swoop on property firms around the country
PEPs, SARs & MLROs: An A to Z of Anti-Money Laundering
As "gatekeepers", estate agents play a crucial role in the UK Government's ongoing efforts to stamp out money laundering and terrorism financing.
RICS publishes mandatory anti-corruption statement
Surveyor set out obligations for property professionals to tackle money laundering, bribery and corruption in the industry.
Government teams up with property & finance industries to tackle fraud
NAEA Propertymark joins the Government's new Economic Crime Strategic Board
Home Office rethinks ‘golden visa’ clampdown
Government slammed for 'trying to legislate by press release' after backtracking on surprise suspension of Tier 1 investor visas