Who owns London? The capital’s biggest landowners: Qataris own as much land as the Queen and TfL put together
A company part-owned by the Qataris own almost as much land in the capital as Transport for London and the Queen put together, a new ranking has suggested, while the City of London was ranked second.
Figures compiled by Datscha for property trade bible Property Week showed Canary Wharf Group, which is joint-owned by Qatari Diar and Brookfield, is London's largest landowner, with 21,452,796 sq ft of property.
The City of London, officially known as the Mayor and Community and Citizens of the City of London, came second, with 17.4m sq ft of space.
That was followed by Transport for London, Aviva and BNP Paribas, all of which owns more space than the Queen, who has just 7.3m sq ft.
At number 19 was Tesco, the highest-ranked non-property company, with 3.4m sq ft.
Qatar, which is roughly the same size as Yorkshire, has built up its holding in UK property in less than 10 years – although it amassed a vast area when it and Brookfield bought Canary Wharf owner Songbird Estates for £2.6bn in 2015.
However, the tiny country's sovereign wealth fund also owns stakes in The Shard, Harrods, the Olympic Village and Claridge's, as well as One Hyde Park, Camden Market, and an estimated £1bn of property in Mayfair.
But the Qataris may soon be usurped as London's biggest foreign landowner. Yesterday it emerged a 50 per cent stake in the Walkie Talkie may be put up for sale, with some reports suggesting the China Investment Corporation may buy it. Last month British Land (number nine on the list) and Oxford Properties sold the Cheesegrater to Chinese-owned CC Land.
Read more: Don't moan about foreigners buying UK assets: It's a vote of confidence
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