Foreign crime groups funnel vast sums into UK property and corporate assets to hide illicit profits and fund further wrongdoing. Recent estimates suggest up to £100 billion may be laundered through UK-registered structures each year, while £11 billion of suspicious wealth has been tied to UK real estate since 2016.

Real Estate: A High-Risk Laundering Hub
The UK property market is a prime destination for criminal cash because high values mask illicit origins and transactions span multiple jurisdictions. The 2020 UK AML National Risk Assessment labeled real estate “high risk” for laundering, citing opaque ownership structures and large fund movements. Between 2004 and 2015 alone, some £180 million of criminal proceeds was cleansed via UK property deals—a figure dwarfed today by the trillions changing hands each year.

Conveyancing Firms: The Vulnerable Gatekeepers
Conveyancing law firms are especially exposed. They move buyer deposits and sale proceeds through client accounts with relatively limited oversight, creating opportunities to obscure dirty money. In December 2024, the Office for Professional Body AML Supervision reaffirmed conveyancing as a high-risk area, warning that multiple intermediaries can breed “complacency” and gaps in due diligence. Criminals exploit these weaknesses by layering funds through shell companies or nominee buyers, evading KYC checks.

Targeted Properties, Hotspots, and Red Flags
High-value London addresses in Mayfair and Knightsbridge top the list, alongside prime rural estates and student-city buy-to-lets. In the landmark Zamira Hajiyeva case, the National Crime Agency secured a Unexplained Wealth Order over her £50 million Knightsbridge flat and Berkshire golf course—assets disproportionate to her declared income. Common red flags include:

  • Use of offshore shell companies or secrecy-jurisdiction vehicles
  • Rapid resales or over-market valuations
  • Unusual funding sources (third-party loans or bulk cash)
  • Politically exposed persons (PEPs) or complex trust arrangements
  • Multiple properties registered at the same address.

“Legitimate” Businesses as Laundering Vehicles
Beyond bricks and mortar, criminals “clean” funds by acquiring bona fide UK companies. Scottish Limited Partnerships (SLPs) and LLPs have been abused to funnel up to $80 billion out of Russia via more than 100 interconnected entities operating across Europe and the UK. UK corporate vehicles remain attractive: easy incorporation, limited disclosure requirements until recent reforms, and gaps in Companies House oversight allow laundering networks to hide beneficial owners and sham directors.

The Baby-Boomer Succession Wave
As 12 million baby-boomer–owned businesses approach sale within the next two years, the UK faces a “Silver Tsunami” of transfers. Nearly one-third of SME owners intend to sell part or all of their firms imminently—equating to roughly 1.6 million businesses—driven by retirement and succession planning challenges. Across all assets, an estimated £5.5 trillion may change hands in the next two decades, a vast pool that criminal frontmen could exploit to buy UK companies with illicit cash.

Shell Companies and Empty Business Structures

Adding to the picture, in the EU, Europol’s December 2024 report “Leveraging Legitimacy: How the EU’s Most Threatening Criminal Networks Abuse Legal Business Structures” reveals the industrial scale at which professional third-party launderers deploy shell companies. It finds that more than 85 percent of major organised-crime networks use special-purpose vehicles and nominee-director structures with no real economic substance to mask ownership and transaction trails. Operating a true “crime-as-a-service” model, these facilitators spin up complex, multi-jurisdictional corporate chains in hours, offer secretarial and nominee services, and levy substantial fees—effectively layering billions of euros of illicit cash before it ever touches the legitimate economy. Europol warns this professionalisation of money laundering via shell entities poses one of the gravest threats to EU financial integrity.

Due Diligence Imperatives for Law and Accountancy Firms
With so many deals on the table, professional advisers must tighten AML controls on corporate sales as rigorously as on property transactions. Key measures include:

  • Verifying ultimate beneficial ownership across multi-tier structures
  • Demanding clear source-of-wealth documentation for purchasers of businesses
  • Screening buyers against PEP and sanctions lists
  • Checking corporate entity buyers for the genuineness of their business activities and sources of wealth.
  • Tailoring client and matter risk assessments to sector, geography, and transaction size
  • Maintaining detailed audit trails for compliance and suspicious-activity reporting.