Overseas companies that own property in England and Wales
Overview
Overseas companies that own property in England and Wales is published monthly. It shows freehold and leasehold title registrations held by HM Land Registry where the registered legal owner is an overseas company or a corporate body incorporated outside of the UK.
Titles registered by private individuals, UK companies with an overseas address and charities are excluded for data protection and fraud prevention purposes.
Specification scope
Inclusions and exclusions
This dataset shows registered legal estates relating to land or property where the registered legal owner is an overseas company. That is a company incorporated outside of the UK.
The data includes titles registered by the following owner types of:
- Corporate bodies
- Limited companies
- Public limited companies
- Unlimited companies
- Limited liability partnerships
The data excludes titles registered by the following owner types of:
- private individuals
- UK companies with an overseas address
- charities
If an excluded owner type is the sole owner, all the details will be excluded from the dataset.
If a registered title is owned by both included and excluded owner types, the excluded owner details will be removed from the name, proprietorship and correspondence address columns.
An indicator will be displayed to highlight there are other proprietors.
Email addresses and British Forces Post Office addresses have been removed from the correspondence address records. These are considered private and personal.
Relationship to other HM Land Registry data products
The dataset is aligned with UK companies that own property in England and Wales which contains more than 3.2 million records of titles registered to a UK commercial organisation or corporate body.
The title number allows relational links to be made with other HM Land Registry datasets that also contain the title number.
Data content and structure
Table 1 - Overseas companies that own property in England and Wales: class diagram
| Overseas companies that own property in England and Wales |
|---|
| Title number |
| Tenure |
| Property Address |
| District |
| County |
| Region |
| Postcode |
| Multiple address Indicator |
| Price Paid |
| Proprietor name (1) |
| Company Registration No. (1) |
| Proprietorship Category (1) |
| Country Incorporated (1) |
| Proprietor (1) address (1) |
| Proprietor (1) address (2) |
| Proprietor (1) address (3) |
| Proprietor name (2) |
| Company Registration No. (2) |
| Proprietorship Category (2) |
| Country Incorporated (2) |
| Proprietor (2) address (1) |
| Proprietor (2) address (2) |
| Proprietor (2) address (3) |
| Proprietor name (3) |
| Company Registration No. (3) |
| Proprietorship Category (3) |
| Country Incorporated (3) |
| Proprietor (3) address (1) |
| Proprietor (3) address (2) |
| Proprietor (3) address (3) |
| Proprietor name (4) |
| Company Registration No. (4) |
| Proprietorship Category (4) |
| Country Incorporated (4) |
| Proprietor (4) address (1) |
| Proprietor (4) address (2) |
| Proprietor (4) address (3) |
| Date Proprietor added |
| Additional Proprietor Indicator |
| Change indicator (COU only) |
| Change Date (COU only) |
Table 2 - Overseas companies that own property in England and Wales: table structure
| Field name | Data type | Mandatory | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Title number | Character | Yes | Unique number which identifies a registered title to land or a caution against first registration. |
| Tenure | Character | Yes | Freehold or leasehold. |
| Property Address | Character | Yes | The unformatted address in the register. |
| District | Character | Yes | District name. Name of an administrative district created since local government reorganisation in 1974. Administrative district also covers the London boroughs, unitary authorities and (for HMLR’s purposes) the Isles of Scilly parishes. |
| County | Character | Yes | Name of current county in England and Wales. |
| Region | Character | Yes | Name of a geographic region which comprises one or more current counties, former counties or unitary authorities or any combination of these. On HQ instructions, the names and extents of the regions are the economic planning regions used by various bodies. N.B. region names allocated by the Office for National Statistics differ in some instances from names in this field. |
| Postcode | Character | No | A combination of up to 7 letters and numbers (plus one embedded blank), which defines geographic units. It is part of a coding system created and used by the post office across the UK. |
| Multiple address Indicator | Character | Yes | Indicates that property addresses on the register are contained in a Property Schedule. The register may contain additional property addresses. |
| Price Paid | Character | No | The sale price stated on the transfer deed which will be the last recorded sale price available in our published Price Paid Dataset. This may not relate to the sale to the current proprietor which may have been excluded (see our list of exclusions) |
| Proprietor name (1) | Character | Yes | Non-private Individual Name. Name of a company, corporate body, local authority or other organisation or establishment. |
| Company Registration No. (1) | Character | No | A unique identifier assigned to a company when it is registered at Companies' House. Although the name of the company may change, the Company Registration Number will stay the same. |
| Proprietorship Category (1) | Character | Yes | Text which describes the category in which a name falls. |
| Country Incorporated (1) | Character | Yes | The country where the company is incorporated. |
| Proprietor (1) address (1) | Character | Yes | Register address string. The address (including the postcode) either of a property or a registered proprietor, in the form in which it appears as the property description on the register. The text will include any commas but exclude any final punctuation marks (e.g. full stops) and any delimiters. |
| Proprietor (1) address (2) | Character | No | Register address string. The address (including the postcode) either of a property or a registered proprietor, in the form in which it appears as the property description on the register. The text will include any commas but exclude any final punctuation marks (e.g. full stops) and any delimiters. |
| Proprietor (1) address (3) | Character | No | Register address string. The address (including the postcode) either of a property or a registered proprietor, in the form in which it appears as the property description on the register. The text will include any commas but exclude any final punctuation marks (e.g. full stops) and any delimiters. |
| Proprietor name (2) | Character | No | Non-private individual name. Name of a company, corporate body, local authority or other organisation or establishment. |
| Company Registration No. (2) | Character | No | Number which is a unique identifier assigned to a company when it is registered at Companies' House. Although the name of the company may change, the Company Registration Number will stay the same. |
| Proprietorship Category (2) | Character | No | Text which describes the category in which a name falls. |
| Country Incorporated (2) | Character | No | The country where the company is incorporated. |
| Proprietor (2) address (1) | Character | No | Register address string. The address (including the postcode) either of a property or a registered proprietor, in the form in which it appears as the property description on the register. The text will include any commas but exclude any final punctuation marks (e.g. full stops) and any delimiters. |
| Proprietor (2) address (2) | Character | No | Register address string. The address (including the postcode) either of a property or a registered proprietor, in the form in which it appears as the property description on the register. The text will include any commas but exclude any final punctuation marks (e.g. full stops) and any delimiters. |
| Proprietor (2) address (3) | Character | No | Register address string. The address (including the postcode) either of a property or a registered proprietor, in the form in which it appears as the property description on the register. The text will include any commas but exclude any final punctuation marks (e.g. full stops) and any delimiters. |
| Proprietor name (3) | Character | No | Non-private individual name. Name of a company, corporate body, local authority or other organisation or establishment. |
| Company Registration No. (3) | Character | No | Number which is a unique identifier assigned to a company when it is registered at Companies' House. Although the name of the company may change, the Company Registration Number will stay the same. |
| Proprietorship Category (3) | Character | No | Text which describes the category in which a name falls. |
| Country Incorporated (3) | Character | No | The country where the company is incorporated. |
| Proprietor (3) address (1) | Character | No | Register address string. The address (including the postcode) either of a property or a registered proprietor, in the form in which it appears as the property description on the register. The text will include any commas but exclude any final punctuation marks (e.g. full stops) and any delimiters. |
| Proprietor (3) address (2) | Character | No | Register address string. The address (including the postcode) either of a property or a registered proprietor, in the form in which it appears as the property description on the register. The text will include any commas but exclude any final punctuation marks (e.g. full stops) and any delimiters. |
| Proprietor (3) address (3) | Character | No | Register address string. The address (including the postcode) either of a property or a registered proprietor, in the form in which it appears as the property description on the register. The text will include any commas but exclude any final punctuation marks (e.g. full stops) and any delimiters. |
| Proprietor name (4) | Character | No | Non-private individual name. Name of a company, corporate body, local authority or other organisation or establishment. |
| Company Registration No. (4) | Character | No | Number which is a unique identifier assigned to a company when it is registered at Companies' House. Although the name of the company may change, the Company Registration Number will stay the same. |
| Proprietorship Category (4) | Character | No | Text which describes the category in which a name falls. |
| Country Incorporated (4) | Character | No | The country where the company is incorporated. |
| Proprietor (4) address (1) | Character | No | Register address string. The address (including the postcode) either of a property or a registered proprietor, in the form in which it appears as the property description on the register. The text will include any commas but exclude any final punctuation marks (e.g. full stops) and any delimiters. |
| Proprietor (4) address (2) | Character | No | Register address string. The address (including the postcode) either of a property or a registered proprietor, in the form in which it appears as the property description on the register. The text will include any commas but exclude any final punctuation marks (e.g. full stops) and any delimiters. |
| Proprietor (4) address (3) | Character | No | Register address string. The address (including the postcode) either of a property or a registered proprietor, in the form in which it appears as the property description on the register. The text will include any commas but exclude any final punctuation marks (e.g. full stops) and any delimiters. |
| Date Proprietor added | Date | No | The date a proprietor was added to the register. |
| Additional Proprietor Indicator | Character | Yes | Indicates if there are other proprietors on the register which are not overseas companies. |
| Change indicator (COU only) | Character | No |
Indicates the change to the row A – Added, D – Deleted. |
| Change Date (COU only) | Date | No | The date of the extract. |
Table 3 - Overseas companies that own property in England and Wales: Tenure code list
| Number | Tenure | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Freehold | Freehold estates are held for an infinite duration. |
| 2 | Leasehold | Leasehold estates have a fixed or maximum duration. Under the Land Registration Act 2002, only leases granted for a term of more than seven years are compulsorily registrable and are included in this data. |
Table 4 - Overseas companies that own property in England and Wales: Proprietor code list
| Number | Proprietorship | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Limited Company or Public Limited Company | A company where the liability for debts is limited either by guarantee or by reference to the number of shares issued. The majority of companies are limited. |
| 2 | Corporate Body | An organisation that has its own legal rights and responsibilities. |
| 3 | Unlimited Company | An unlimited company is a company with unlimited liability for its debts. |
| 4 | Limited Liability Partnership | A Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) is a corporate body and has legal identity separate from that of its members. It can hold property in its own right and has unlimited powers to deal with estates. |
Data quality
During more than 150 years of land registration, improvements to working practice may have caused some inconsistencies in the data.
- Only completed register entries are included. No pending applications or historic owners are included.
- HM Land Registry did not routinely record the country of incorporation in the register before January 1999.
- The information regarding owners may not always reflect the position on the Register, as we have removed private individuals, overseas companies and charities.
- The source data is from citizens and conveyancers supplied on registration deeds and documents. There is often inconsistency in the way addresses and names are supplied to HM Land Registry.
- There may be spelling errors in the names of the owners. This could be due to input error or the way the names were presented.
- Detailed address information is provided wherever possible.
- The postcode will be derived from the registered property description. If one hasn’t been registered then the postcode will be blank.
- The ‘Registered on’ date is the date the proprietor was registered. If there is more than one proprietor on the register it will be the date the latest proprietor was added. This could mean it is not when the overseas company was registered, but another proprietor on the register whose details are excluded.
- Y in the Multiple Address Indicator field indicates that property addresses on the register are contained in a Property Schedule. The register may contain additional property addresses. You’ll need to buy an official copy of the register to find out more about these addresses.
- Not every title will have an amount in the Price Paid field. These figures are taken from the monthly Price Paid information based on the latest application.
Data capture information
The data is collected when property is transferred or leased to an overseas corporation. During the application process, the country of incorporation is recorded in the register. This has been the case since 1997.
In some countries, a corporation is registered in a particular state or province. In this case, HM Land Registry enters both the state or province and the country. For example: #MONTBLANC HOLDINGS LIMITED# (incorporated in British Columbia, Canada).
Data maintenance
The data can change several times during the month. The published data will only show the latest change made.
Data product delivery
Access to the dataset
Two files will be published from the 2nd working day of the month. The data is published in both a monthly complete file and a file that only shows changes to the dataset since the previous month. This is known as the change only update file.
Once the full dataset has been downloaded, the title number allows users to maintain the data by adding the change only update to the full dataset each month. Alternatively, the user can download the full dataset again, which also contains all changes made to date.
Granting access
You will need to create an account on the Use land and property data service and sign in to access the data.
File structure
The dataset is provided as a CSV file. The data in each file will:
- use a comma to separate each field: ‘,’ (ASCII 44)
- enclose all fields within double quotes “ “ (ASCII 34)
- send blank fields without a character between double quotes: ”“
- have a date format of DD-MM-YYYY. For example, 14 December 2013 will be shown as 14-12-2013
- will use UTF-8 encoding (the way characters are coded for websites)
- have line separation removed
- have the column heading as the first row
File name
The file names will be structured as below.
- OCOD_<1><2><3>.csv
- <1>File Type. FULL denotes full monthly extract, COU denotes monthly change only update
- <2>Year of file creation (format YYYY)
- <3>Month of file creation (format MM)
The following are examples for the 2 types of file:
- OCOD_FULL_2018_10.csv
- OCOD_COU_2018_10.csv
Contact information
If you have any feedback or questions about this data, contact us:
Telephone
- Telephone: 0300 006 0478
- Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
- data.services@mail.landregistry.gov.uk
- We aim to respond within 2 working days