HM Land Registry release monthly updates of property transactions by foreign corporations. From this data its quite interesting to figure out trends over time and geography in terms of foreign interest in property in England and Wales.

The details and caveats – the data only includes properties owned by foreign companies (as opposed to individuals), including companies registered in Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. I’ve excluded any properties where the proprietor’s address is in England or Wales.

So lets start with the most basic breakdown – that by region. No surprises here – London is popular with foreigners.

What about the number of properties being bought by foreign corporations over time? From the chart below it looked like a pretty steady rise until around Brexit time (June 2016) when it became more volatile as the pound dropped and the future of British asset prices was anybody’s guess. Whats more clear in the chart is the decline this year.

Looking at the percentage of foreign corporate transactions to the total volume of property transactions, it has hovered around 0.4%  of the market since 2010, with spikes whenever the pound has dropped – notice the spike up in the property chart in 2008/9 and the corresponding spike down in the value of the pound in the exchange rate chart below that.

We also know the number of buys and sells that took place each month in the last year which gives us some interesting information on where foreign corporations are net buyers vs sellers. In October 2018 this is what it looked like – e.g., London had 360 purchases vs 356 sales.

The chart below shows the trend in the buy/sell ratio over the last year by region with January being the darkest and October being the lightest shade of blue. The North and North West were popular at the beginning of this year, while Wales and the West Midlands have picked up more recently (though keep in mind that for some places like Wales and East Anglia the overall transaction numbers are quite small).

The top 20 places where foreign corporations have been buying properties are:

District	Total Oct 2017	Total Oct 2018	One Year Change %
SOUTHWARK	455	833	83.08
SOUTH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE	36	64	77.78
YORK	53	83	56.60
LUTON	70	108	54.29
CENTRAL BEDFORDSHIRE	70	108	54.29
WYRE	34	50	47.06
MANCHESTER	516	692	34.11
BLACKBURN WITH DARWEN	20	26	30.00
NEWHAM	426	533	25.12
CAERPHILLY	51	63	23.53
DUDLEY	30	37	23.33
OLDHAM	32	39	21.88
BARKING AND DAGENHAM	66	80	21.21
BASSETLAW	20	24	20.00
COUNTY DURHAM	138	165	19.57
NEWPORT	52	61	17.31
SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE	37	43	16.22
WINCHESTER	59	68	15.25
CANNOCK CHASE	27	31	14.81

Conversely, the top 20 places where foreign corporations have been selling are:

District	Total Oct 2017	Total Oct 2018	One Year Change %
BLABY	33	12	-63.64
LEICESTER	393	200	-49.11
HINCKLEY AND BOSWORTH	45	23	-48.89
CHARNWOOD	80	44	-45.00
TAMWORTH	45	26	-42.22
TENDRING	76	44	-42.11
KING’S LYNN AND WEST NORFOLK	31	18	-41.94
WREKIN	37	22	-40.54
NEWARK AND SHERWOOD	35	22	-37.14
KNOWSLEY	82	53	-35.37
NORTHAMPTON	105	71	-32.38
SOUTH TYNESIDE	25	17	-32.00
CASTLE POINT	26	18	-30.77
WARWICK	30	21	-30.00
CORBY	37	26	-29.73
COVENTRY	99	70	-29.29
NUNEATON AND BEDWORTH	24	17	-29.17
BRECKLAND	24	17	-29.17
EAST DEVON	28	20	-28.57

And these are the changes for all districts with over 200 properties owned by foreign corporations:

District	Total Oct 2017	Total Oct 2018	One Year Change %
CITY OF WESTMINSTER	7343	7249	-1.28
KENSINGTON AND CHELSEA	3468	3338	-3.75
TOWER HAMLETS	1440	1483	2.99
CAMDEN	1318	1329	0.83
LAMBETH	1011	1040	2.87
HOUNSLOW	968	982	1.45
CITY OF LONDON	944	948	0.42
HAMMERSMITH AND FULHAM	860	854	-0.70
WANDSWORTH	839	858	2.26
ISLINGTON	786	784	-0.25
COLCHESTER	742	739	-0.40
LIVERPOOL	689	747	8.42
BARNET	619	600	-3.07
BIRMINGHAM	536	571	6.53
MANCHESTER	516	692	34.11
EALING	498	502	0.80
SOUTHWARK	455	833	83.08
NEWHAM	426	533	25.12
HARINGEY	405	405	0.00
HACKNEY	399	389	-2.51
LEICESTER	393	200	-49.11
SALFORD	371	377	1.62
SHEFFIELD	323	328	1.55
LEEDS	299	277	-7.36
BRENT	280	285	1.79
WYCOMBE	270	272	0.74
CITY OF NOTTINGHAM	262	199	-24.05
CITY OF KINGSTON UPON HULL	253	235	-7.11
BRIGHTON AND HOVE	232	236	1.72
CITY OF BRISTOL	214	209	-2.34