Deirdre Hipwell, Damian Shepherd and Jack Sidders
Nick Candy has sold his family home in London’s exclusive Chelsea district to an unnamed buyer for more than £270 million ($517 million), believed to be the biggest single house sale in history.
The British entrepreneur’s property is located on a two-acre site that once accommodated the residence of Britain’s first prime minister, Robert Walpole. It has been landscaped to emulate a grand country estate.
Social media posts by Candy’s design company show a lake and swimming pool in the grounds, along with original Georgian details inside the property.
Although the house was never formally marketed, demand for the property was so high that multiple offers were received, according to people familiar with the transaction, who asked not to be named discussing confidential matters.
Candy declined to comment. Marcus O’Brien of UK Sotheby’s International Realty, who is understood to have led the transaction, was approached for comment but could not be reached.
The purchase price beats the £210 million ($402 million) paid in 2020 for a mansion overlooking London’s Hyde Park that’s ultimately owned by the family of Hui Ka Yan, founder of the failed developer China Evergrande Group. The second-biggest ever single luxury house sale in London was in 2024, when a home in Regent’s Park – a 40-room property previously owned by a member of the Saudi royal family – sold for £139 million.
It also tops the near $US240 million sale of a New York penthouse apartment to hedge fund manager Ken Griffin.
Candy’s sale dwarfs recent local deals. The priciest London home sale last year was a £41 million mansion purchased by Charles Lorenceau, founder of private equity firm Ace & Co, while American fashion designer and film director Tom Ford purchased a Chelsea mansion for more than £80 million in 2024.
Over the past year, many of London’s most noteworthy home purchases have taken place in desirable West London enclaves close to Candy’s former home. A flat in new apartment blocks in Chelsea sold for £25 million at the end of last year, albeit at a discount of more than 50 per cent from the asking price earlier in 2025.
Higher property taxes have helped to dampen demand for the capital city’s priciest homes. Last year was only the second since 2011 in which no sales above £50 million were recorded, data from property company LonRes show.
Deals worth £5 million or more were 55 per cent lower in February than the same month last year, with “activity trending lower for many months,” according to LonRes. There were 10 per cent more homes with this price tag on the market in February than a year ago, with stock levels significantly above the long-term average.
Nick Candy and his brother Christian are best known for developing One Hyde Park, which launched in 2011 and where apartments sell for tens of millions of pounds.
More recently, Candy has been turning his attention to luxury development projects in the Middle East. His interior design and development management business, Candy London, which designed the recently-sold house, has also undertaken smaller-scale projects in London, New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere.
His other trophy real estate assets include the flagship duplex penthouse at One Hyde Park and The Reserve estate in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles.
Candy, who also serves as honorary treasurer of the Reform UK political party, previously lived at the property with his wife Holly Valance. The couple announced their divorce last year.
Bloomberg
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