Nick Candy has reportedly sold his house for around £270m (Image: Getty)
A property sale in London may have broken the record for the most expensive residential house deal in history. The home, owned by billionaire and Reform UK treasurer Nick Candy, reportedly changed hands for a staggering sum in excess of £270million.
Mr Candy, a property developer, previously resided at Providence House in Chelsea alongside former Neighbours actress Holly Valance. However, the couple filed for divorce in 2025 after 13 years of marriage.
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The Grade II listed Providence House, formerly known as Gordon House, is a 19th century mansion situated within Chelsea Hospital’s Royal Hospital on a two acre site.
The land upon which it stands originally formed part of an estate belonging to Britain’s first de facto Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole.
Despite contemporary modifications and additions, Providence House retains its original Georgian era details throughout the interior, as showcased by Mr Candy’s design company on social media, reports MyLondon.
An aerial view of Providence House (Image: Google Maps)
Mr Candy renamed the property, which boasts an underground swimming pool and a lake, after his brother Christian Candy presented it to him as a gift in 2014, having acquired it himself for £75m at auction.
According to the Telegraph, the £270m sale of Providence House places it amongst, if not at the very top of, the most expensive house sales ever recorded, surpassing the £210million purchase of a mansion near Hyde Park in 2020 by the family of Hui Ka Yan, founder of the Chinese Evergrande Group.
The identity of the buyer remains undisclosed, with details kept firmly out of the public domain. The Independent also reported that a series of offers were submitted, despite the property never having been formally placed on the market.
The most expensive London home sold in 2025 was a £41m mansion purchased by Charles Lorenceau, founder of private equity firm Ace and Co. The sale also surpasses the £80m paid by fashion designer Tom Ford for a Chelsea mansion in 2024.
Previously a member of the Conservative Party, Mr Candy now serves as treasurer for Nigel Farage‘s Reform UK, having defected from the Tories in 2024.
It has been reported that Mr Candy donated approximately £1m to the political party last year, making him one of its principal fundraisers.
Mr Candy’s sale comes just a week after the Financial Times revealed that London house prices had declined for the sixth consecutive month, in stark contrast to UK-wide figures, which climbed by 1.3 percent over the same period to January.
Commenting on the trend, Knight Frank’s head of residential research Tom Bill told the publication: “London house prices continue to the victim of their own successes in recent decades, with the latest decline driven by an affordability squeeze that has prompted a growing number of buyers to find more bang for their buck outside the M25.”
ReachPlc approached Mr Candy for comment.
‘Record-breaking home’ sold by Reform UK treasurer for £270m – but the buyer is unknown
A record-breaking London mansion linked to Reform UK treasurer Nick Candy has become the centre of renewed attention after being sold for a reported sum of around £265 million to £275 million.
Providence House, a Grade II-listed property in Chelsea, is believed to have become the most expensive house ever sold in Britain. When the transaction was first reported in April 2026, the identity of the buyer had not been made public, adding an unusual layer of secrecy to one of the country’s most expensive residential property deals.
The mansion is not an ordinary London home. Set within the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the property occupies roughly two acres and includes a private lake, swimming pool and extensive gardens. It also underwent a major renovation during Candy’s ownership, including a large basement and private cinema.
Candy, a billionaire property developer best known for his involvement in luxury developments including One Hyde Park, became a prominent figure in Reform UK after leaving the Conservative Party. He serves as the party’s honorary treasurer and has also been a significant financial supporter of Nigel Farage’s political organisation.
The sale has therefore attracted attention not simply because of its extraordinary price, but because of the political connections surrounding both the seller and, according to later reports, the eventual buyer.
A mansion unlike almost any other
Providence House has a long history and has been substantially transformed under Candy’s ownership.
The property was originally constructed in the early nineteenth century and has retained Georgian architectural features. During Candy’s time there, it was extensively renovated into a highly private luxury residence.
Reports have described a 60-foot swimming pool, a 14,000-square-foot basement and a private IMAX cinema. The estate’s position inside the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea also provides a degree of privacy that is exceptionally difficult to find in central London.
The house had previously been associated with Candy and his former wife, Australian actress and singer Holly Valance. The couple announced their divorce last year.
The property was not openly marketed in the conventional way. According to reporting at the time of the sale, a number of offers were made even though the mansion was never formally placed on the open market. Candy declined to comment on the transaction.
The reported price initially varied between £265 million, £270 million and £275 million depending on the source.
Whatever the final figure, the transaction was comfortably above Britain’s previous residential property record: the £210 million paid in 2020 for 2-8a Rutland Gate overlooking Hyde Park.
The buyer was initially kept secret
When news of the sale emerged, the buyer’s identity was not publicly disclosed.
That is not necessarily unusual in Britain’s luxury property market. High-value properties can be purchased through companies, partnerships or other structures, and the individual ultimately controlling a property may not immediately be obvious from public records.
Land Registry records initially continued to show Providence House under the ownership structure associated with Candy. The property was held through Providence House LLP, rather than simply appearing in Candy’s personal name. The partnership was established in 2024 and included Candy and Valance among its members.
But subsequent investigations have pointed towards a specific buyer.
Tax Policy Associates and London Centric reported in September that the buyer was Suneil Setiya, co-founder of the quantitative investment firm Quadrature Capital. Their investigation said the sale had taken place in May and placed the price at approximately £265 million.
Importantly, the investigators noted that neither the price nor the buyer’s identity had yet been confirmed through the public Land Registry record. Their identification of Setiya was based on their investigation and reporting rather than a completed public registration.
Setiya himself has declined to comment publicly on the transaction.
A striking political connection
If the reports identifying Setiya are correct, the transaction brings together two wealthy individuals associated with very different sides of British politics.
Candy is a senior figure in Reform UK and has donated around £1 million to the party. He has also played a major role in fundraising for Farage’s organisation.
Setiya, meanwhile, is associated with Quadrature Capital, which donated approximately £4 million to Labour during the 2024 general election campaign.
That does not mean the property transaction itself was political. There is no evidence that the sale was connected to either party or that political considerations played a role in the deal.
But the contrast has naturally attracted attention because of the financial and political prominence of the two men.
Setiya’s financial background is tied to the growth of Quadrature Capital, a quantitative investment business that has become one of Britain’s better-known hedge-fund firms. The company’s owners have also supported environmental and charitable causes through philanthropic organisations.
Candy’s political career, by contrast, has increasingly been linked to Reform UK and Farage.
The unusual pairing has made the mansion sale a subject of interest well beyond London’s luxury property market.
The stamp duty question
The latest controversy concerns not only who bought Providence House, but how the transaction was structured.
According to an investigation by Tax Policy Associates and London Centric, Candy’s partnership did not sell Providence House as a single property.
Instead, the reported transaction involved six residential properties: Providence House itself and five smaller flats located nearby.
That detail matters because Britain’s Stamp Duty Land Tax rules contain a provision covering purchases of six or more residential properties in a single transaction.
HM Revenue & Customs states that six or more residential properties bought in one transaction are treated as non-residential property for SDLT purposes. The applicable rates are significantly different from the residential rates.
Tax Policy Associates calculated that the structure reduced the stamp duty bill by approximately £18.5 million.
On a reported £265 million purchase of Providence House alone, the organisation estimated that stamp duty would have been about £31.8 million. By purchasing six properties together, the estimated bill fell to roughly £13.25 million.
The five additional flats were reportedly worth only a small fraction of the total transaction value.
That disparity is what has made the case particularly noteworthy.
Was anything illegal?
There is an important distinction between an unusual tax arrangement and an illegal one.
The available reporting does not establish that Candy or Setiya broke the law.
The government rules explicitly provide that six or more residential properties purchased together are treated as non-residential for SDLT purposes.
The question raised by tax experts is whether applying that rule to a transaction overwhelmingly dominated by one extraordinarily expensive mansion reflects the policy intention behind the provision.
Tax Policy Associates has argued that the structure could result in a substantial tax saving because five relatively inexpensive properties were included alongside Providence House.
The organisation has suggested that HMRC could examine the arrangement and that the government may eventually consider changing the rules if it believes similar structures could become more widespread.
That is an issue for HMRC and policymakers rather than evidence, by itself, of wrongdoing.
Setiya’s reported position is that the properties were offered collectively and that the appropriate amount of stamp duty was paid under the rules. A source close to him told The Times that there was no arrangement with Candy to reduce the tax bill unlawfully. Candy has not commented publicly.
Why the case matters beyond one mansion
The Providence House transaction has become an example of a much wider debate over Britain’s property tax system.
Stamp duty is intended to raise revenue from property transactions, but the rules contain different rates and provisions depending on what is being purchased.
Those distinctions can become extremely significant when dealing with very high-value properties.
The government itself confirms that purchases involving six or more residential properties in a single transaction fall under the non-residential SDLT regime.
The question now is whether the existing framework adequately anticipates transactions in which one property represents almost all of the value while several much cheaper properties are included in the same purchase.
Tax Policy Associates has argued that the Providence House transaction could encourage others to explore similar arrangements if HMRC does not challenge it or Parliament changes the rules.
That remains a matter of policy debate.
For now, the transaction itself illustrates how complex the UK’s property market can become at the very top end.
From political fundraiser to record-breaking property seller
The sale also marks another chapter in Candy’s increasingly public relationship with British politics.
Once known primarily as a luxury property developer, Candy has become one of Reform UK’s most visible financial figures.
His role in the party has grown alongside Reform’s expansion and its increasingly substantial fundraising operation.
Yet the sale of Providence House is fundamentally a private property transaction rather than a political event.
Its significance comes from the extraordinary value of the house, the secrecy surrounding the buyer when the sale was first announced, and the subsequent questions over how the transaction was structured for tax purposes.
The identity of the buyer is no longer quite as mysterious as it initially appeared. Later reporting has identified Suneil Setiya, although the public property records had not yet formally confirmed the transaction at the time of the latest investigation.
What is clear is that Providence House has set a remarkable benchmark for Britain’s luxury property market.
The mansion’s reported price is extraordinary even by London’s standards. Its history, architecture and extensive renovation already made it exceptional. The involvement of a prominent Reform UK figure as seller and a major Labour-linked donor as the reported buyer has added an unexpected political dimension.
But the most consequential part of the story may ultimately be neither Candy nor Setiya.
It may be the tax rule itself.
If the arrangement is permitted under current legislation, the case demonstrates how the structure of a property transaction can dramatically affect the amount of tax payable. If policymakers conclude that the rules are being used in ways they did not intend, Providence House could instead become part of a future debate over how Britain taxes its most expensive homes.
For now, the record-breaking mansion remains a symbol of London’s extraordinary concentration of wealth — and a striking example of how property, politics and taxation can intersect in Britain’s most expensive transactions.