The launch party for One Hyde Park was an opulent affair.

The giant glass-and-concrete block of apartments over the road from Harvey Nichols and a stone’s throw from Kensington Palace was a visible symbol of the super-rich who were making a triumphant return to London.

Cristal champagne was dispensed by flunkies, while celebrities including Bernie Ecclestone and Gary Lineker mingled with 300 of the globe’s most seriously wealthy men and women — among them Eastern European oligarchs, Middle Eastern sheiks and Chinese entrepreneurs.


Sumptuous: Inside one of the multi-million pound apartments which have stunning views over London

The luxury development, designed by Millennium Dome architect Lord Rogers and masterminded by property tycoon brothers Nick and Christian Candy, is at the very top end of the London property market, with an asking price of £6,000 for each square foot — compared with the city’s average of £200 to £300.


Rinat Akhmetov,But at the lunch, just after Christmas, a whisper went round the guests that the cherry on the cake — the penthouse at One Hyde Park — had reportedly been sold for the huge price of £136million to a mystery buyer. If this is to be believed, it is the most expensive residential property ever sold in the UK.

No one, certainly not the canny Candy brothers, was giving away the secret. It wasn’t until yesterday that the identity of the purchaser emerged. Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov — whose £9billion fortune overshadows even that of Russian Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich — was behind the purchase. A miner’s son who has risen from a humble background to become the 148th richest man in the world, Akhmetov is now said to be spending another £60million on the interior design of his new pad before he moves in — if he ever does.

The 44-year-old economics graduate is said to have made his first million trading coal, but his business interests now include everything from energy and mining to media and communications. He also owns a Ukrainian football team.

His penthouse flat — which at 25,000 square feet is 16 times the size of a typical three-bedroom house — is in a building constructed with 15 different types of precious marble and using  thousands of European oak trees.

There is a private cinema, a 21m  swimming pool, saunas, a gym, a golf simulator, a wine cellar, a valet and a concierge, and the annual service charges top £100,000 a year.

A glass of vodka or a bowl of caviar will be available from room service provided by the opulent Mandarin Oriental hotel next door.