An elusive buyer has snapped up Britain's most expensive home, in one of the country's most exclusive enclaves for a landmark £160 million. The owner, listed as two companies based in Guernsey, used a mortgage from Credit Suisse Group AG to pay for the penthouse at One Hyde Park.
The Candy brothers have dubbed One Hyde Park 'the world’s most exclusive address.' Christian Candy owns separate flats worth £31million and £26.2million on the tenth floor while Nick, who is married to Holly Valance, also owns a penthouse in the block. Residents are protected by a multi-million-pound security ring of steel with flats featuring panic rooms, bulletproof glass and bowler-hatted guards trained by Special Forces. There is also iris recognition in the lifts and all mail is X-rayed. An extract from the Land Registry shows the £160 million 'Apartment B' comes with ample parking spaces as well as wine storage. It has a 21-metre swimming pool which is said to be nearly always empty, a cinema, saunas, gym, golf simulator, wine cellar, valet service and room service via a tunnel from the five-star Mandarin Oriental hotel next door. There is also a full concierge service, a conference/function room, and a library. One Hyde Park comprises some 86 apartments set over four pavilions with views over Knightsbridge to the south and Hyde Park to the north.
According to a 2013 Sunday Times investigation, oil baronesses, Kazakh singers and Arab sheikhs were revealed to be owners of One Hyde Park apartments. Owners at the time were named as Rinat Akhmetov, Kazakh singer Anar Aitzhanova and Sheikh Mohammed Saud Sultan Al-Qasimi, a member of the ruling family of the Gulf emirate Sharjah. Naomi Campbell's ex-boyfriend Vladislav Doronin was reported to own an apartment there as well according to the investigation by tax haven expert Nicholas Shaxton, just 17 of the 76 sold apartments are primary residences. Many of the owners use offshore companies to hide their identity. Earlier this year, billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, 51, was blocked from selling what was then understood to be Britain’s most expensive flat amid fears that he will try to ‘hide his assets’ because of a legal row. Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man, bought a triplex penthouse at One Hyde Park in London for £136 million in 2011, then spent £60 million on renovations. But he was served with an order from a Cypriot court freezing £580 million of his assets in a long-running dispute with a business rival.