A blog posting from I Hate Money Laundering on 22nd October links to a Independent interview with Mark Hayward, chief exec of NAEA Propertymark, who says the attention on London property is driving those wishing to acquire property (PEP, money launderers and other criminals) to university cities like Cambridge. The NAEA, a body for UK estate agents, also complained about ‘woefully underfunded’ government efforts to crack down illicit funds flowing into the UK’s £7 trillion of housing stock. The article points out that, while most financial services businesses have to go through a lengthy vetting process by the City watchdog, all that is required to become an estate agent is to register with HMRC and join a redress scheme, which means customers get their money back if things go wrong, but even these requirements appear to not be followed by some operators. Only just over half of estate agents are overseen by the NAEA, which implements minimum standards, meaning thousands are operating “under the radar”.
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