Nick Candy tells RESI conference that more rioting could damage London’s reputation abroad
Property tycoon Nick Candy has warned that the government must act to maintain London’s pre-eminent position in high-end residential.
Speaking at the annual RESI conference at the Celtic Manor Hotel in Wales, the man behind the capital’s most expensive address, One Hyde Park, warned that any further rioting in the capital after last month’s unrest could damage the city’s reputation abroad.
Candy jointly runs luxury property developer Candy & Candy with his brother Christian. He said wealth inequity was partly to blame for the riots and was therefore a major threat to the stability of the high-end residential market. He recently accosted London mayor Boris Johnson to criticise his handling of the London riots.
“I think it’s a disgrace - they had time to deal with it,” he told delegates at the conference. “I’m worried about the huge wealth inequity between the rich and poor in London.”
Candy added that too much banking regulation that would precipitate banks moving to Hong Kong was the other major threat to London.
He said the outlook for the high-end resi market in London otherwise looked buoyant.
“There’s a lot of money in the world and people are looking for a safe haven for it. A lot of international money wants to come to London.”
He said the biggest issue for some developers was that they didn’t “understand” the volumes of wealth in the world.
He admitted the brothers had spent too much money on the £1bn One Hyde Park project and could have achieved the same success spending less money. “If I was doing it again I wouldn’t be spending it,” he said.
No comments yet