The Candy brothers, the youthful property magnates who develop homes for the super-rich, have completed the deal to buy 12.8 prime acres of Chelsea for a record £959 million, more than three times the amount estimated when the land was put up for sale by the Ministry of Defence.
The deal for the Chelsea Barracks site, struck in partnership with the Qatari Government, is thought be a British record for a residential plot. It values the site at £75 million an acre; land for development in less affluent parts of London typically costs several million per acre.
The battle to secure the site dwarfs even the Candys’ own deal, forged in 2004, to buy the Bowater House site overlooking Hyde Park for £150 million. Flats in that 86-unit development, due for completion in two years’ time, are on the market for as much as £100 million.
Now, to add to the drama, Nick Candy, 33, and Christian Candy, 34, are said to be talking to Hollywood studios about using the Chelsea site as a set, and may even blow up the existing buildings for a film scene. Demolition should begin within weeks, despite planning permission still being required from Westminster Council.
The brothers believe that it will take until 2014 to realise their plans for 1,500 homes, designed by Lord Rogers, and unspecified “community facilities”.
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The Candys, who reportedly started out in property a decade ago with a loan of £6,000 from their grandmother, announced plans last year to move into the US market, with the purchase of a £225 million site in Beverly Hills.
The Candys and Qatari Diar Real Estate have five years to pay the £959 million they owe to the Government, much of which has been pledged to improve remaining military homes in Britain.