Revealed: The super-rich owners of One Hyde Park

 
Owners revealed: One Hyde Park Picture: Nigel Howard
Lindsay Watling4 March 2013

The super rich owners of properties in the world’s most expensive apartment block have been revealed for the first time.

Identities of some of the buyers of the £6,000-a-square-foot properties in London’s £1 billion One Hyde Park development were unclear as they purchased them through companies based in off-shore tax havens.

But their names have now been published in the latest edition of American magazine Vanity Fair, disclosing a cross-section of some of the wealthiest people on the planet.

Believed to be among them are top model Naomi Campbell’s property magnate boyfriend Vladislav Doronin, a Nigerian oil billionairess, a Kazakh singer, Arab sheikhs and Russian and Chinese business leaders.

The owners were unmasked by Zurich-based investigative reporter Nicholas Shaxson, who is also a tax haven expert.

He spent six months trawling through records from the Isle of Man to the Cayman Islands to uncover the faces behind the offshore firms.

According to his research, five flats were bought for a combined $123million – more than £82million – by Isle of Man companies under the name of Rose of Sharon.

Records show these are owned by oil baroness Folorunsho Alakija whose worth is estimated at $3.3billion, approximately £2.2billion.

The best apartment in the block – a triple-storey penthouse – is said to be owned, via a Cayman Islands company, by the prime minister of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani.

Another flat is understood to have been purchased by Sheikh Mohammed Saud Sultan Al-Qasimi, a member of the ruling family of the Gulf emirate Sharjah.

Ukraine’s wealthiest man Rinat Akhmetov, number 39 on Forbes magazine’s rich list, is also thought to have bought two units on the site for a total of $215.9million, around £144million, while another is registered to British insurance broker Rory Carvill.

Other apparent investors include Vladimir Kim, who chairs the London-listed Kazakh copper giant Kazakhmys, Kazakh singer Anar Aitzhanova and Professor Wong Wen Young, thought to be the Taiwan-born entrepreneur Winston Wong.

Malaysian couple Desmond Lim Siew Choon and Tan Kewi Yong, who have a large property portfolio in Asia, are also said to own a $12milion – nearly £8million – home in the block.

One Hyde Park was developed by brothers Christian and Nick Candy, who lives in a duplex apartment in the block with his wife Australian singer and former Neighbours star Holly Valance.

According to records, the businessmen and other members of the Project Grande consortium, the firm behind the project, own eight apartments in the block.

Despite their sought-after location, few buyers have actually moved into the flats, however. Only 17 of the 76 apartments which have been sold for a total of $2.7billion – around £1.8billion – are registered as primary residences.

A property owned outright by an individual in the UK is liable for capital gains and inheritance taxes, but buying it through a company legally avoids many of these levies.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in