Criminals funnelling dirty money into UK property are pushing up the price of an average house in London by £11,000, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Illicit cash flowing into the housing market has inflated the average property price in Britain by £3,000, according to data compiled by anti-money laundering experts SmartSearch.
It estimates that since 2016 more than £11 billion of suspicious money has flowed into the UK property market - and it has made house ownership more of a struggle for ordinary families.
Of this, more than half came from shell companies registered in British Overseas Territories, many of which have been accused of serving as hubs for money laundering and tax evasion due to their opaque company laws that restrict public access to ownership records.
Over 87,000 properties in England and Wales are owned by anonymous firms based in tax havens, with around 40 per cent in London.
