Revealed: Pandora papers unmask owners of offshore-held UK property worth £4bn

Heads of government, oligarchs, business tycoons, ruling families and a Middle Eastern monarch are among the anonymous owners of at least £4bn in UK property, the Pandora papers reveal.

From the leaked files – the biggest trove of leaked offshore data in history – the Guardian has been able to identify about 600 individuals who used secretive offshore companies to keep their British property acquisitions confidential. Many of the properties are in the most exclusive London postcodes: Mayfair, Knightsbridge, Kensington and Belgravia.

UK property worth more than £170bn is estimated to be held overseas, much of it anonymously. By offering a rare glimpse into the true ownership of a significant tranche of that, the Pandora papers are likely to intensify pressure on the government to enact previous promises and force overseas owners to publicly register their UK holdings.

Buying property through offshore companies is legal, and some who use this route may have genuine and legitimate privacy or security concerns for doing so. But the secrecy that it confers can heighten the risk of the UK property market being misused for tax avoidance and money laundering, prompting repeated government pledges to overhaul the system.