First for any non-UK'ers who happen to be having trouble with the terminology used:
If you own the "freehold" on a property it means you own the building and the land
If you own "leasehold" you have a sort of long-term lease on the property for a fixed and agreed upon length of time (could be 50 years, could be 100 years).
On a slightly different but related note (i.e not necessarily foreign owned properties) the Private Eye article only shows the data for England, its actually a good deal worse in Scotland where huge chunks of the country are owned privately and indeed sometimes the owners are not even known. Take a look at the map in the link below for a bleak picture
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/10/scotland-land...
If you own the "freehold" on a property it means you own the building and the land
If you own "leasehold" you have a sort of long-term lease on the property for a fixed and agreed upon length of time (could be 50 years, could be 100 years).
On a slightly different but related note (i.e not necessarily foreign owned properties) the Private Eye article only shows the data for England, its actually a good deal worse in Scotland where huge chunks of the country are owned privately and indeed sometimes the owners are not even known. Take a look at the map in the link below for a bleak picture http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/aug/10/scotland-land...