Luxury flats overlooking Hyde Park. Waterfront villas in Miami. Skyscrapers piercing the Dubai skyline. For criminals and the corrupt, real estate isn’t just an investment—it’s the perfect vault for dirty money.

Despite years of pledges from the world’s most powerful economies to crack down on money laundering, a groundbreaking new index reveals just how deeply compromised global property markets remain.

The first-ever Opacity in Real Estate Ownership (OREO) Index, released by Transparency International and the Anti-Corruption Data Collective (ACDC), exposes how easily money launderers exploit loopholes, hide their identities, and invest in real estate with almost no scrutiny. Even in countries with the strongest regulations, gaps in transparency allow suspicious funds to slip through the cracks, undermining the global fight against corruption.

Why Does Opacity in Real Estate Ownership Matter?

Wrongdoers have long turned to real estate as a foolproof way to launder illicit funds. The reasons are simple: high value, minimal oversight, and the ability to obscure ownership through shell companies and trusts. The more stable and profitable a country’s property market, the more attractive it becomes to corrupt actors looking to stash their wealth securely.

The scale of dirty money flowing into real estate is staggering:

• Between 2015 and 2021, an estimated $2.3 billion in illicit funds were funneled into U.S. property.
• In the UK, £1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) worth of property is owned by Russians with known corruption links or ties to the Kremlin.
• Australia saw more than $1 billion laundered through its real estate market in just one year (2015-2016), with many buyers linked to China.
• The UAE, particularly Dubai, has gained a notorious reputation as a safe haven for untraceable wealth.
• African corruption cases alone account for at least 121 properties worth over $560 million, often held anonymously in foreign countries.

From ultra-luxury penthouses in London to high-yield commercial properties in Singapore, the true owners behind these assets remain deliberately hidden.

This unchecked opacity isn’t just an abstract problem—it fuels crime, corruption, and skyrocketing property prices. It allows kleptocrats, drug lords, and financial criminals to cement their power, siphon billions from public funds, and stash their loot in some of the world’s most desirable cities—all without consequence.

What the OREO Index Measures

The OREO Index ranks 24 key jurisdictions—including G20 nations, global financial hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore, and secrecy havens like Panama and the UAE—based on two crucial factors:

1. Real Estate Ownership Transparency – How easily authorities, journalists, and the public can access ownership data.
2. Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Frameworks – The strength of regulations designed to prevent property transactions from being used for laundering illicit funds.

Each jurisdiction receives a score from 0 to 10, with the final ranking based on a weighted average of these two pillars.

The OREO Index: Which Countries Are Most Vulnerable?

The findings are damning: not a single country scored a perfect 10. Ten countries scored below 5 out of 10, meaning their real estate markets remain dangerously exposed to illicit money.

Best Performer: South Africa

• Despite securing the highest ranking, South Africa still has major flaws, including restricted data access and unfinished regulatory reforms.
• Other top scorers: Singapore, France, and England & Wales—all of which still have loopholes to address.

Worst Performers: Australia, South Korea, and the United States

• These countries have either non-existent or weak AML laws for real estate transactions, allowing illicit funds to flow unchecked.

The Data Black Hole: A Global Obstacle to Accountability

The OREO Index highlights a major problem: most countries do not collect or share the critical data needed to keep real estate markets clean.

• Anonymous ownership reigns supreme: Almost no country requires the disclosure of beneficial owners—the real individuals behind property-holding companies and trusts.
• Real estate registers are locked away: Argentina, China, Germany, Türkiye, and the UAE restrict property ownership records to authorities or select professionals.
• Data access is deliberately difficult: South Africa requires extensive documentation just to search ownership records, Canada’s databases come with hefty subscription fees, and Mexico’s records are inconsistently digitized.
• Purchase prices and transaction intermediaries are missing: Many countries fail to track who is involved in the sale, making it harder to detect undervalued deals or suspicious transactions.

Loopholes and Gaps: How Criminals Exploit the System

Transparency isn’t the only problem. Weak oversight and regulatory blind spots make it almost effortless for corrupt actors to launder money through property.

• In Australia, China, England & Wales, Japan, and the UAE, real estate deals can be done without any professional oversight, meaning there’s no legal requirement to verify buyers’ identities or the source of their funds.
• Entire sectors evade AML scrutiny:
  • Developers in Argentina, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Norway, and the UAE can sell properties without any AML obligations.
  • Lawyers in Brazil and Canada are exempt from AML laws, while in Panama, they are protected by client confidentiality.
• Poor enforcement allows violations to go unchecked. In Germany, over 300 agencies are responsible for AML supervision, leading to fragmented enforcement. Elsewhere, professional self-regulatory bodies often fail to hold their own members accountable.
• High-value property transactions can be done in cash, gold, or crypto. Only France, Hong Kong, and the UAE mandate that payments for high-risk real estate transactions go through financial institutions.
• Due diligence failures: Many professionals don’t apply enhanced scrutiny when dealing with high-risk buyers like politically exposed persons (PEPs). South Africa’s Financial Action Task Force (FATF) report found that even legal professionals lacked awareness of AML risks, despite being legally obligated to monitor them.

Cleaning Up the Mess: What Must Be Done

Governments must act now. The real estate sector should not be a lawless playground for the corrupt. Three key areas need urgent reform:

1. Full Transparency of Ownership
   • Governments must require real estate owners—especially companies and trusts—to disclose who really owns the property.
   • Ownership registries must be fully accessible, open, and digitally integrated for effective oversight.
2. Stronger Regulation of Gatekeepers
   • All real estate professionals, including developers and lawyers, must be subject to AML laws.
   • Tighter enforcement mechanisms are needed to prevent oversight bodies from failing to act.
3. Accessible, Interoperable Data
   • Authorities, journalists, and watchdogs must be able to easily trace property ownership and suspicious transactions across borders.
   • Countries should eliminate high fees and unnecessary access barriers that block public scrutiny.

Final Thought: The Real Price of Inaction

Without decisive action, dirty money will continue to flood global property markets, distorting economies and driving up housing prices for ordinary people. The world’s richest nations, many of which scored embarrassingly low on the OREO Index, have made promises to clean up real estate corruption. Now, they must follow through.

If they don’t, the question isn’t whether illicit funds are in the market—it’s how much, and who’s really paying the price?