Christian Candy sells 'Candyland' mega estate for £125m to Middle East buyer

Property tycoon has been looking to offload luxury properties to the west of London for nearly three years

Property tycoon brothers Nick (left) and Christian Candy in London. PA

Property magnate Christian Candy has sold his "Candyland" mega estate in Surrey for £125 million ($152.8m) to a buyer from the Middle East.

Mr Candy, 48, is the lesser-known half of the Candy brothers, with elder brother and fellow property mogul Nick, 49, garnering most of the headlines thanks to his marriage to ex-Australian pop star Holly Valance and ownership of London's most-expensive penthouse at the Candy-brothers' One Hyde Park development, which was put on the market last year for a record £175m.

The 'Candyland' estate did not list for such a soaring price tag but, unlike the pricey park penthouse, it has actually sold.

The primary property on the estate west of London is Cheval House, which Christian Candy bought in 2015 for £29m, according to land registry documents seen by the Financial Times.

He proceeded to acquire surrounding plots and properties as the Candyland estate took shape. Tens of millions have been pumped into the project, which has a 25-metre swimming pool, a labyrinth of subterranean tunnels and a basement large enough to house a collection of nearly 60 cars.

The development was not intended for personal use for long, and Mr Candy has been looking to offload it for the past three years.

He was initially hoping for £140m, according to an unnamed FT source, but had to settle for £15m less. The same source said the buyer is from the Middle East but did not offer any further details.

Prime estate agents Knight Frank and Savills collaborated with Mr Candy on the deal, but Savills declined to comment when approached by The National.

Many of London's prime property deals take place off the market where they are less encumbered by regulation and convention. Deals in excess of the £100m mark fall into this category and are extremely rare, although the younger Candy sold a house on the perimeter of London's Regent's Park in 2020 for £104m in 2020.

“There are less than a handful [of £100m-plus sales a year],” Roarie Scarisbrick, a buying agent at Property Vision, the upmarket property consultancy, told the FT.

“It’s spoken about as a market, but it’s not: it’s a series of anomalies.”

The Surrey locale of the Candyland estate is renowned for its mega mansions, with several featuring in The National's London luxury property series.

It is certainly a felicitous time to be involved in the London prime property market. It was reported last month that the number of prime homes in the capital being sold for more than £10m has risen to a 10-year high as super-rich buyers have returned to a property market boosted by a weak pound.

One Hyde Park development - in pictures