Former City College site revealed as one of biggest offshore property deals

[dutchman]

The Butts Centre at City College in Coventry was bought for £20,425,000 by Earlsdon Park Limited



Companies registered overseas own millions of pounds worth of real estate in Coventry and Solihull - including part of the Earlsdon Park development.

The units, including part of the former Butts Centre, were sold for more than £50 million to companies abroad.

Data released for the first time by the Land Registry has revealed that foreign-registered companies own properties in the region worth at least £1.57 billion - and likely far more.

While companies are doing nothing wrong, a legal loophole means that a UK individual or company will have to pay corporation tax when they make money selling commercial real estate, foreign companies will not.

The Butts Centre at City College in Coventry was bought for £20,425,000 by Earlsdon Park Limited, which is registered in the Isle of Man.

The former Butts site and Technical College has since been transformed into a mixed-use development, which includes a hotel, shops, a retirement village and an art deco theatre.

Sipl Sunrise Propco S.A.R.L. – registered in Luxembourg – bought a building which houses Birchmere Care Home on Warwick Road for £32,570,000.

It’s estimated that a third of all commercial properties in the UK are owned by offshore companies - which are typically based in tax havens - and closing the loophole could raise between £5bn and £8bn in tax a year.