Who owns London: the Crown, overseas companies, and a £7 check

"Who owns London" sounds like a metaphor, but it has a documentary answer. Land and buildings here are entered on a register, that register has a public part, and anyone can find out who owns a particular house for £7.

Start with the Crown

The Crown Estate is a portfolio of land, property and seabed managed on behalf of the nation. It is not the monarch's private property, and it is not the government's either: it is a separate body, and its profits go to the Treasury.

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The arrangement dates from George III, who surrendered the Crown Lands to Parliament in return for an annual payment. Today, under the Sovereign Grant Act, the government sets the Monarch's funding from that profit.

The 2025/26 figures: a net revenue profit of £0.5 billion, and £5 billion delivered to public spending over the past ten years. It is investing £500 million in London's West End. Its head office is at 1 St James's Market, SW1Y 4AH, in the middle of its own historic holdings.

Overseas owners: visible since 2022

The Register of Overseas Entities came into force on 1 August 2022 under the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022. An overseas entity that wants to buy, sell or transfer property or land in the UK must register with Companies House and name its registrable beneficial owners or managing officers.

The rule is retrospective. For England and Wales it reaches back to anything bought from 1 January 1999, and for Scotland from 8 December 2014. The deadline for those entities to register was 31 January 2023. In Northern Ireland the register covers purchases from 5 September 2022. Entities that disposed of property after 28 February 2022 must also register and give details of the disposal.

Once registered, an entity receives a unique Overseas Entity ID and must give it to the land registry on any transaction. Non-compliance can mean a fine, a prison sentence or both, plus restrictions on buying, selling, transferring, leasing or charging property.

Separately, HM Land Registry publishes datasets of UK companies and of overseas companies that own property in England and Wales. Private individuals, UK companies with an overseas address and charities are excluded, for data protection and fraud prevention reasons.

How to find out who owns a given house

This is the useful part. GOV.UK runs a search service for land and property information in England and Wales, and anyone can use it — not only the owner.

The property summary is free. It gives the address as held by Royal Mail, the property description, the tenure type, and whether there are restrictive covenants or easements.

The full title register costs £7. It carries the title number, who owns the property, how much it was last sold for, whether there is a mortgage, and the detail of covenants and easements. The title plan, showing location and general boundaries, is also £7.

One caveat: downloaded copies cannot be used as proof of ownership. For a court case you need an official copy, ordered separately.

Scotland and Northern Ireland keep their own registers — their properties are not in the English service.