Now we know who bought London’s most expensive home. He couldn’t have kept it secret for long
April 2026 - Spear's
The identity of the buyer of £270 million Providence House was initially kept under wrapsThe buyer of London’s – and possibly the world’s – most expensive residential property has been revealed as Suneil Setiya, the British founder of Quadrature Capital, a tech-driven investment firm based in London.
Setiya, who donated £4 million to the Labour Party in 2024 through his business, bought Chelsea’s Providence House for around £270 million from property developer Nick Candy. Though news of the sale was reported two weeks ago, the identity of the buyer had remained secret – until the publication of a Financial Times story yesterday.
To some observers, the revelation may have came as a surprise, since UHNW buyers of super-prime property tend to guard their privacy tightly. High-value home purchases are often transacted by companies, which may be part of opaque structures that can obscure the true owner’s identity.
However, with a sale of this magnitude the identity of the buyer of Providence House was bound to be revealed eventually, property experts have told Spear’s. It would be extremely difficult to maintain total secrecy around extraordinarily high-value transactions, according to super-prime buying agent Hannah Aykroyd.
‘It’s pretty much impossible to keep the buyer of such a high-profile property secret,’ she said. ‘Even when NDAs are placed on a deal, it often eventually gets leaked.’
Aside from leaks, there have been other developments that have made it easier to identify owners of the UK’s most expensive properties.
A list of foreign entities owning property in the UK, named the Register of Overseas Entities, was launched in August 2022, with the aim of creating transparency in British land ownership. It lists those who own at least 25 per cent of a company which owns land in the UK, known as an Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO).
‘The beneficial ownership register brings greater transparency to the market, lifting the veil on who ultimately owns property,’ said Aykroyd.
Prior to the establishment of the UBO registry, the identity of the owner of London’s second-largest house, Witanhurst in Hampstead, had been obscured for many years. It was eventually revealed – in a 2015 New Yorker by journalist Ed Caesar – to be the Russian billionaire Andrey Guryev, who bought the 90,000 sq ft house via an offshore company based in the British Virgin Islands.
Setiya’s new purchase, Providence House, sits on a two-acre plot on the ground of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, a stones throw away from Sloane Square and the Kings Road. It was previously owned by Nick Candy, part of the super-prime property duo who developed Knightsbridge’s ultra-exclusive apartment building One Hyde Park in 2011.
While Providence House is highly private by central London terms, sitting on a quiet street in Chelsea which has fairly low footfall, the significant sum it sold for and its high-profile former owner made it inevitable that the identity of the buyer would eventually come to light, added Aykroyd.
As well as being London’s most expensive home, Providence House has a two-acre garden that is one of the largest in central London, with only Buckingham Palace’s 39 acre grounds being larger. The house itself was extensively refurbished by Candy, who bought it for £69 million in 2012 and later installed a 14,000 sqft basement and a 60ft swimming pool. Knightsbridge’s Rutland Gate was previously the most expensive house ever sold in London, having sold for £210 million in April 2020.
The house has been on the market for three years, said leading London buying agent Camilla Dell, who told Spear’s that she previously held discussions with Candy for a buyer to purchase the property for £250 million – £20 million less that the eventual sale price.
‘A couple of years ago, we were chatting to a prospective client who had a brief for a very large residence in central London with as big a garden as possible,’ said Dell. ‘I remember saying to the client “there’s really only two houses in London that meet your brief: One is Buckingham Palace and the other is Providence House”.’
Trophy properties such as Providence House often take a few years to sell because very few buyers can afford their high asking prices, argued Dell.
‘There’s a limited number of buyers globally for somewhere like Providence House – you can probably count them on two hands,’ she said.
There are other houses in Chelsea similar to Providence House which are rumoured to be quietly up for sale, said one super-prime London property broker, who wished to remain anonymous.
‘There are four big houses of this calibre in Chelsea, including Providence House,’ they said.
Owned by Norwegian billionaire John Fredriksen since 2001, 56 Old Church Street is said to be open to offers of around £250 million. Last year it was reported that Fredriksen, a shipping magnate and the UK’s ninth richest person, declared that ‘Britain has gone to hell’, signalling his intention to leave the country.
Another notable Chelsea home, Stanley House, which is on the Kings Road, was bought by Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky for £10 million in 2005 and is also rumoured to be quietly for sale. Sloane House and Lodge, owned by Formula One heiress Petra Ecclestone, is allegedly inviting off-market offers of around £170 million.
‘It’s a stonker,’ said the property expert.
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