Housing ‘no place for dirty money’, says NAEA

The NAEA has joined forces with the Transparency International to oppose money-laundering in the estate agency sector. The NAEA and the anti-corruption body want to see four major changes introduced to the sales and purchase process in a bid to combat the problem. This includes ensuring that all foreign companies are transparent over their ultimate beneficial ownership of property titles in the UK, anti-money laundering checks are carried out by estate agents on the purchaser, as well as the seller of high-value property, make sure that agents adhere to anti-money laundering regulations, and that meaningful punishment and sanctions are imposed on agents who break the rules and support criminal money laundering. Following on from the Channel 4 ‘From Russia with Cash’ documentary in the summer, the NAEA’s Mark Hayward said that there is still ‘not absolute clarity’ in relation to anti-money laundering among those in the property sector, despite the very clear legislation in place and regular training and updates from within the industry. “It is now time to step up the level of scrutiny that the sector comes under to ensure that a small minority of agents do not support criminal activity and those that do are appropriately sanctioned,”…