U.S. Will Track Secret Buyers of Luxury Real Estate

[applegrove]

U.S. Will Track Secret Buyers of Luxury Real Estate

By LOUISE STORY at the NY Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/14/us/us-will-track-secret-buyers-of-luxury-real-estate.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=0

"SNIP...............


Concerned about illicit money flowing into luxury real estate, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that it would begin identifying and tracking secret buyers of high-end properties.

The initiative will start in two of the nation’s major destinations for global wealth: Manhattan and Miami-Dade County. It will shine a light on the darkest corner of the real estate market: all-cash purchases made by shell companies that often shield purchasers’ identities.

It is the first time the federal government has required real estate companies to disclose names behind all-cash transactions, and it is likely to send shudders through the real estate industry, which has benefited enormously in recent years from a building boom increasingly dependent on wealthy, secretive buyers.

The initiative is part of a broader federal effort to increase the focus on money laundering in real estate. Treasury and federal law enforcement officials said they were putting greater resources into investigating luxury real estate sales that involve shell companies like limited liability companies, often known as L.L.C.s;



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[MADem]

1. Lotta VZ and Brazilian money in Miami...and they're not alone.

It's a reasonably safe place to put money--beats a safe in the closet....

In New York, The Times examined a decade of ownership at an iconic condominium complex near Central Park, the Time Warner Center, and found a number of hidden owners who had been the subjects of government investigations. They included former Russian senators, a former governor from Colombia, a British financier, and a businessman tied to the prime minister of Malaysia, who is now under investigation. In Florida, The Times uncovered a condominium in Boca Raton tied to Mexico’s top housing official, who recently stepped down and is now a leading contender for the governor’s office in the southern state of Oaxaca.

[applegrove]

3. I wonder if it will slow down the housing market. For a long time there it needed all the help it

could get. I guess now is the time to do it as employment and the economy is up.

[MADem]

7. So many of those luxury apartments sit empty. They're just investments.

Makes it nice, I suppose, if you live in one of those things on a floor where there aren't a lot of real "neighbors." Just doors with no one living there....like having the place to yourself....? No need to pound on the walls or knock a broom on the ceiling telling 'em to KEEP IT DOWN!!!!

Of course, I don't know anyone who could afford one of those things anyway--the prices are just too outrageous.

Boston's getting to be the same way--rents are absurd nowadays.

[applegrove]

11. But they raise the housing market which George W. Bush totally crashed.

[MADem]

12. The housing market doesn't need any help. nt

[applegrove]

13. Not any more I guess.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. They only thought about it now? Seriously?

[applegrove]

4. I'm guessing that they didn't want to hurt a recovering housing market until now.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. You're probably right.

Last edited Wed Jan 13, 2016, 10:54 PM - Edit history (1)

I know people in the charity raising business and I'm surprised how angry they are that the economy turned, because their donations took a dive. But I have to believe that somewhere in their very intelligent brains they know that not every dollar collected was clean.

I'm absolutely sure that this country believed that money from the devil is okay when it's doing God's work.

[applegrove]

8. A lot of people make money doing bad things. Like smoking lobbyists and arms manufacturers. The

charities have gotten more marketing oriented over the years too. I'm not surprised.

[malaise]

5. The FIFA boys too n/t

[NightWatcher]

9. I understand the concerns, but part of me wishes there were privacy too

I work for high end clients who sometimes need privacy and protection and whom we've had to put in safe houses for a week or month at a time. Also, if I were to win this mega lotto, I'd want to buy homes without everyone being able to know where I lived for safety concerns.

[glinda]

10. Add Minneapolis to that list!!!!!!!!!