Costing up to £100m, most of the Knightsbridge apartments are sold but unoccupied, distorting London's housing market
It is billed as the "most exclusive address in the world", but One Hyde Park is apparently not the main one used by more than three-quarters of those who own homes there, according to information released by Westminster council.
The Candy brothers' luxury development in the London borough of Knightsbridge has more than 80 apartments, but only 19 are registered as "occupied by individuals" for council tax purposes, it has emerged, following a freedom of information request by the magazine Inside Housing.
Of the rest of the properties, which were marketed at £6m for a one-bedroom flat to £100m-plus for a penthouse, the council treats 16 as empty and 26 as second homes. The remaining 23 are registered as occupied by companies.
Many of the flats are known to have been sold to overseas buyers, including wealthy individuals from Asia, the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Greece and Canada, and it has previously been revealed that 80% were bought through offshore entities, the majority registered in the British Virgin Islands.
The information gives more insight into how many are actually being lived in. Residential properties owned through companies are still required to pay council tax, and since April the council has not offered a discount for second homes or those that lie empty. Owners who do not use them will still be paying the full amount each year, currently £1,361.
David Ireland, chief executive of the campaign group Empty Homes, said the figures illustrated the oddness of the prime London housing market, and how headline figures about the number of homes being built did not tell the whole story.
"These flats are being used as a kind of tradeable currency for the international super-rich. On one level, it's flattering that London is valued so highly by overseas buyers, but I fear the cost is felt by ordinary Londoners as these prices feed down the housing market," he said. "These flats will have counted towards the statistics, but are about as relevant to housing need as uneaten caviar and truffles are to the starving."
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