Christian and his brother, Nick Cuddy, made their names selling expensive London flats to the super-rich in the years after the 2008 financial crisis. Christian Candy bought the main property at his Surrey estate, Cheval Manor, in 2015 for £29m, according to Land Registry documents. He then acquired a number of neighboring plots and properties, all connected to form the sprawling estate named ‘Candyland’. Having invested tens of millions of pounds in the estate, Candy, 49, had been looking to sell for three years and had originally hoped to receive £140m from the sale, a person with knowledge of the deal said. The final buyer was from the Middle East, this person added. The tycoon sold a house overlooking Regent’s Park in London for £104 million in 2020. Candy declined to comment. Luxury estate agents Savills and Knight Frank both worked on the sale of his Surrey property, two people with knowledge of the £125m transaction said. Both companies declined to comment. Property sales of £100 million or more are extremely rare in England, especially outside London. “There are less than a handful [of £100mn-plus sales a year]said Roarie Scarisbrick, purchasing agent at Property Vision, the luxury property consultancy. “It’s talking about a market, but it’s not: it’s a series of anomalies.” Surrey and the private estates near Candy’s property, such as Wentworth and St George’s Hill, are a draw for wealthy buyers from around the world. In March, The Times reported that Candy had spent at least £50m putting together his property, which includes a 25m underground swimming pool. In 2021, Candy secured planning permission to build a network of underground tunnels connecting parts of the estate, including a basement equipped to house a collection of almost 60 cars.

Nick Candy has been the public face of the brothers’ development activities and has remained in the public eye, most recently working on an unsuccessful bid for Chelsea Football Club and a failed approach to buy online retailer THG. Christian keeps a lower profile, developing high-end properties in Holland Park in west London. The apartments at the brothers’ flagship development, One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge, are among the most expensive in the British capital.