Qatari investors own more of London than the Queen and the Mayor’s office

Qatari investors own more of London than the Queen and the Mayor’s office

Posted on Mar 17th, 2017 in Street News // Comments »
Tags: #NoMoreDeathsOnOurStreets, #opsafewinter, Canary Wharf Group Investment Holdings, Poverty, Qatar, Squat, Squatting, The Mayors office, the Queen

Qatari investors own more property in the capital than the Mayor of London’s office and three times more than the Queen, according to new data seen by The Telegraph.

Canary Wharf Group Investment Holdings, which is co-owned by Qatar Holdings, part of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and American investment group Brookfield, is the capital’s largest property owner, with almost 21.5m sq ft of space on its books, according to data from the research firm Datscha.

The government of Qatar also owns 1.8m sq ft, making the Middle Eastern country by far the most dominant force in London property. In contrast, Her Majesty owns just under 7.3m sq ft.

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al-Thani, the former head of the QIA, said last year that Qatari investment into the UK to date amounted to £30bn, and that London was the preferred destination.

The QIA owns the site of the Chelsea Barracks, the Olympic Village and the Shard, along with Canary Wharf which contains some of the city’s largest buildings.

Using data from the Land Registry, Companies House and the Valuation Office, Datscha analysed the top 100 landowners in the capital, which showed that the mayor’s office controls the second highest holding, at 17.4m sq ft, followed by Transport for London, at 14.9m sq ft.

Insurance firm Aviva and French bank BNP Paribas make up the rest of the top five property owners, with almost 9m sq ft and 7.5m sq ft respectively.

The government of Kuwait has also been particularly aggressive, according to Datscha’s figures, amassing 3.65m sq ft in a relatively short amount of time and putting it 16th on the list, above most of the London boroughs and the National Grid.

The top 100 also features three major retailers: Tesco is 19th, John Lewis and Waitrose are joint 54th, and Walmart, the US parent company of Asda, is 89th.

source: Daily Telegraph

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Who owns London (ranked by sq ft)

	Owner	Area (sq ft)
1	Canary Wharf Group Investment Holdings*	21,452,796
2	The Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London	17,447,701
3	Transport for London	14,889,025
4	Aviva	8,964,857
5	BNP Paribas	7,457,253
6	The Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty in Right of Her Crown	7,266,023
7	Legal & General Group	6,782,525
8	SEGRO	6,589,014
9	British Land Company	6,410,015
10	Network Rail	4,903,713
11	Royal London Mutual Insurance Society	4,536,939
12	Land Securities Group	4,453,968
13	The Government of the United Kingdom	4,453,182
14	Greater London Authority	3,919,193
15	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Newham	3,650,067
16	Government of Kuwait	3,646,359
17	London and Amsterdam Trust Company	3,533,466
18	WGTC Nominees	3,375,552
19	Tesco	3,356,647
20	Grosvenor (Mayfair) Estate	3,112,294
21	Royal Mail	3,056,657
22	Universities Superannuation Scheme	3,054,483
23	Derwent London	3,032,989
24	Prudential	3,025,344
25	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Southwark	2,999,248
26	HSBC Holdings	2,936,885
27	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Enfield	2,926,657
28	Car Giant	2,870,241
29	Big Yellow Group	2,860,510
30	BT Pension Scheme	2,325,472
31	State Street Corp	2,311,527
32	Trustees of Lazari Family Trust	2,288,761
33	National Grid	2,255,933
34	Berkeley Group Holdings	2,187,048
35	Howard de Walden Estates Holdings	2,047,913
36	Ford Motor Company	2,044,527
37	Ameriprise Financial	2,024,755
38	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Barnet	2,015,822
39	Coal Pension Properties	1,984,117
40	The Portman Estate Nominees (One)	1,962,785
41	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Waltham Forest	1,937,589
42	Mount Eden Land	1,900,791
43	Standard Life Share Account	1,870,059
44	Oddo et Compagnie	1,868,536
45	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham	1,861,188
46	Diageo Pension Trust (Property Custodian)	1,853,565
47	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Sutton	1,831,953
48	Cadogan Settled Estates Shareholding Company	1,829,188
49	Jermyn Street Com Real Estate Fund 3	1,825,694
50	Canneth BM (Shareholder)	1,803,678
51	The Government of Qatar	1,800,903
52	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Bromley	1,755,276
53	The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime	1,721,846
54	John Lewis Partnership Trust	1,721,367
55	Zurich Insurance Group	1,712,979
56	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Haringey	1,694,152
57	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Hackney	1,635,364
58	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Hillingdon	1,535,004
59	FCP Topco	1,520,772
60	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Merton	1,461,595
61	The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Mercers of the City of London	1,445,724
62	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Camden	1,436,293
63	CIP Property (AIPT)	1,435,751
64	The Whitgift Foundation	1,422,529
65	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets	1,418,528
66	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Bexley	1,381,021
67	The Lord Mayor and Citizens of the City of Westminster	1,371,428
68	Canal and River Trust	1,314,153
69	CLS Holdings	1,313,428
70	Shurgard European Holdings	1,311,015
71	Secretary of State for Transport	1,301,207
72	The Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Goldsmiths of the City of London	1,298,537
73	Hammerson	1,242,273
74	Shaftesbury	1,227,167
75	St James’s Place	1,211,711
76	American Sugar Holdings	1,209,385
77	Glasgow City Council	1,204,646
78	Daejan Holdings	1,203,811
79	The Mayor and Burgesses of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea	1,198,855
80	Bestway (Holdings)	1,198,827
81	Barnett Waddingham	1,186,852
82	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Wandsworth	1,172,783
83	Roundwood Holdings	1,114,709
84	Banco Santander	1,090,232
85	Caretown	1,079,682
86	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Lambeth	1,076,532
87	Church Commissioners for England	1,075,466
88	The Mayor and Burgesses of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames	1,062,325
89	Walmart Stores	1,061,687
90	Royal Borough of Greenwich	1,054,712
91	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Hounslow	1,053,012
92	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Brent	1,048,810
93	Lancer Property Holdings	1,042,955
94	Grosvenor Group	1,039,950
95	Stichting INGKA Foundation	1,029,629
96	Strand Nominees	1,016,618
97	The Mayor and Burgesses of the London Borough of Lewisham	1,008,826
98	London and Quadrant Housing Trust	998,930
99	Barclays	996,348
100	Euroclear	981,021
*Co-owned by Brookfield and Qatar Holding

METHODOLOGY

The list has been compiled using data taken from the Land Registry, the Valuation Office and Companies House and includes all properties in the London region (NUTS 1). The list includes nominee companies (such as banks and financial advisers). If the property is owned by a joint venture, Datscha can only connect it to the largest owner (>30%) – so if two companies own 50% each, the database doesn’t match it to an ultimate owner.