Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates and emir of Abu Dhabi, owns a secretive £5.5bn property empire in London, according to leaked documents and court filings seen by the Guardian. The portfolio spans some of the city’s most expensive neighbourhoods and includes about 170 properties, from a mansion near Richmond Park to high-end office blocks occupied by hedge funds and investment banks.
The properties are held through a complex structure of shell companies in offshore havens, administered by top London law firms. This has allowed the sheikh to build up the portfolio largely undetected, with about 1,000 tenants. The holdings were first revealed in 2016 through the Panama Papers, but new documents suggest they are worth almost five times the previously estimated £1.2bn.
In 2005 alone, the sheikh spent £1bn on five properties. By 2015, the portfolio had swelled to £5.5bn with annual rental income of £160m. The properties include flats in luxury blocks on the market for about £20m each, as well as a secluded mansion near Richmond Park and multiple office blocks in central London.
The portfolio is now at the centre of a high court dispute, with claims that since a stroke in 2014, Khalifa has been “mentally incapacitated” – allegations his lawyers deny. The case has also revealed that control of his assets may have been secretly handed over to his half-brother Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the owner of Manchester City football club.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing, and owning UK property through offshore companies is legal. However, the UK government has committed to introducing a register of overseas companies owning UK properties to increase transparency and combat corruption.
