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Christian Candy is offloading and mortgaging high end homes amid slowdown in luxury market with an estimated value of £340m in less than a year.
The Candy Brothers have made a name for themselves by selling some of the highest prices ever paid for London real estate; estimates on their joint fortune differ with figures from £600m-£1billion bandied around. Nick Candy is consistently bullish about the size of the elusive brothers empire.
The Guardian found that eight Candy homes and developments have been sold, borrowed against or placed on the market between July 2016 and June of this year.
They include a villa on the French Riviera, a penthouse above the Plaza Hotel in New York, and a seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom house in London with a swimming pool and staff quarters.
The dynamic duo have reportedly decided to pull the plug on some properties due to too many competing developments and an oil price slump curbing interest from their exclusive foreign buyer pool.
“Players at this level often shuffle their chess pieces around,” said property agent and market commentator Henry Pryor. “The market, even for the Candy brothers, is no longer as sweet as it was a couple of years ago – but, having enjoyed some of the most impressive returns over the years, they can probably weather a modest downturn.”
This comes in the midst of an ongoing court case with ex-business partner and school friend Mark Holyoake over a disputed loan deal. The case makes some extraordinary allegations suggesting Nick Candy, 44, who is married to actress Holly Valance, warned the debt could be sold to Russians who “would not think twice” about using violence. But at the High Court Tim Lord QC accused Mr Holyoake of “massaging the figures” when securing the loan in October 2011 from the Candys, concealing the true state of his own finances.
This June, Christian Candy was reported to be under contract to sell his three-floor Plaza penthouse for just under $40m (£31m).
The property, which occupies the attic floors of a famous New York hotel once owned by Donald Trump, was acquired for $25m in 2012 and, after a revamp, was placed on the market a year later with a price tag of $59m.
A buyer was found after a decision to drop the price earlier this year, according to reports.
A large property at Cornwall Terrace used by Christian as his London family home, has been transferred to Geneva based wealth manager Clermont for just over £39m according to a land registry entry from December 2016.
The Swiss group is also named on the title deeds of two associated houses at Cornwall Terrace Mews: one was acquired for £2m, and the other, valued at £1.2m, previously belonged to Christian Candy’s wife Emily Crompton.
The Big Sell Off – Candy Properties In Full:
- One Hyde Park Penthouse D, London – valued at £120m in 2011, was refinanced in July 2016 according to the land registry
- Plaza Penthouse, New York – reported in June 2017 to be under contract with a buyer at just under $40m
- Hugh House, London – mortgaged in March 2017, advertised for sale at £45m
- Villa L’Horizon, Cap-Ferrat – the French Riviera villa was originally marketed at €35m, but reported in May to have been sold for €25m
- Cornwall Terrace, London – Britain’s “most expensive terraced house”, overlooking Regent’s Park, was bought for £35m in 2012. In February of this year it was recorded as transferred to Clermont Trust (Switzerland) SA, at a value of £39m.
- Cornwall Terrace Mews – Originally in the name of Emily Crompton, Christian’s wife, the property was transferred in February 2017 to Clermont Trust for £1.2m.
- Cornwall Terrace Mews – a second mews house associated with the main property at Cornwall Terrace was transferred to Clermont Trust for £2m in January 2017.
- Duke’s Lodge, London – The 1930s mansion block in Holland Park was bought for £85m in 2015, and refinanced with a loan from Credit Suisse in February 2017. A newspaper report says it is now on the market for £75m.
DealMakerz think this is a straight-forward rebalancing exercise; a clear sign the duo are nervous about their exposure and want to realize some of their gains. Uncertainty around both the UK and US political environments, UK stamp duty increases and a largely stagnant London property market have most likely contributed to the closing up of Candy finances.
One outcome could be a re-emergence in the commercial market, which has seen dramatic returns in London recently.
However, we suspect the Brother’s are simply looking to stay under the radar as much as possible after their recent court case, in which Nick Candy admitted he knew people called him ‘Ricky Butcher’ behind his back.
