A surge in demand for luxury designs, followed by a major cut in staff, has led to property developers Nick and Christian Candy reporting a 46.8% hike in pretax profit.
Candy & Candy Holdings, the development company behind London’s most expensive residential block of all time, One Hyde Park, cut their sales and design staff from 65 to 38 people – according to company accounts published yesterday.
The redundancies appear to have helped turn around the company’s finances, which suffered dramatically in the downturn when turnover fell from £9m in 2011 to £5.8m in 2013.
As well as the staff cull, a “more competitive design market” has helped boost revenue its accounts say.
“The interior design market has become more competitive as new design houses are attracted to the work generated from a growing property market,” the company accounts said.
But while Candy & Candy Holdings results may seem positive, London’s appetite for building skyscrapers and the luxury flats they contain hasn’t waned, so the question remains: who will fill them?
LondonlovesBusiness.com first reported on this worrying trend back in October 2011, when we revealed how occupancy rates for the capital’s new towers were far below expectations.
Last June, a report by Dowling Jones Design made headlines when it revealed that the Shard was practically empty, and that The Heron Towter on Bishopsgate was struggling to find tenants.
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