social cleansing in london

Nick and Christian Candy, the uber-property developers behind the ulra-expensive ‘ghost block’ – No 1 Hyde Park have been up to their old tricks again, buying out inner-london residencies to sell to the off-shore billionaires and enhancing the notion that London is undergoing a serious social cleanse.

An article in The Independent last weekend revealed the lengths the Candy’s have gone to in their latest acquisition – a block of flats called Duke Lodge in Holland Park.

Sending in a squadron of private security guards to line the corridors of the block, the front entrance and outside individual front doors – the Candy’s achieved total ownership of the property by buying out the protected tenancy agreements of the existing tenants and, to ensure the deal went through, forced any remaining tenants to vacate the building for 24 hours so as to achieve the required ‘vacant’ status needed to buy the property in one go.

The individual flats are now being renovated to be sold on for vast profit, with the huge majority expected to be sold to super rich foreign investors who, in all likelihood, will leave the properties vacant for the majority of the time.

Read the full story over on The Independent.