Nigerian investors have risen from outside the UK’s top five foreign owners of buy-to-let companies to second place, underscoring the growing financial reach of the country’s diaspora
Nigeria’s growing presence in Britain’s private rental market is emerging in an unlikely place: the ownership records of thousands of buy-to-let companies.
Data compiled by Hamptons from Companies House records shows that Nigerian nationals ranked second among foreign nationalities owning UK buy-to-let companies in 2026, behind India and ahead of Ireland, Poland and Turkey. The shift is striking because Nigeria did not appear among the top five nationalities in any of the years from 2016 to 2022.
By 2023, however, Nigerians had entered the ranking at number two, a position they have retained through 2026.
The rise puts Nigeria alongside countries with long-established connections to Britain and substantial pools of wealth invested in its property market. It also offers a window into how the Nigerian diaspora is increasingly using Britain not only as a destination for migration and education but as a market for building and preserving wealth.
