RECESSION, what recession? The super-rich are snapping up apartments at the world's most expensive residential scheme at London’s One Hyde Park as if they were going out of fashion.

According to data released exclusively to The Sunday Times, half of the 80 apartments at the luxury scheme designed by Richard Rogers have already been contracted to be sold – even though the project will not be completed until 2010. Knight Frank, one of the estate agents handling the Knightsbridge development, said sales already totalled more than £500m and the average apartment price had reached £20m.

Wealthy oil barons, Russian oligarchs and hedge-fund managers are shelling out at prices that break down to almost £6,000 per square foot for the chance to own one of the apartments. That figure is up from £4,000 per square foot in late 2006.

The sales reflect London’s status as a global city, with 39% of the buyers hailing from Russia, 25% from the Middle East, 14% from Britain and 11% from continental Europe.

The highest price paid for an apartment at the scheme is rumoured to be more than £100m. The interiors are the work of Candy & Candy, the interior design company run by Nick and Christian Candy, two brothers in their early thirties who have become multi-millionaires by creating fantasy homes for people with limitless budgets.

The site will have an underground passage to the nearby Mandarin Oriental hotel, where staff will be on hand to cater to residents’ needs.

CPC, the Guernsey-based investment company owned by Christian Candy, has an equity stake of more than a third in One Hyde Park. The scheme is also backed by Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim Jaber al-Thani, foreign minister of the Gulf state of Qatar.

Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, said sales of so-called “super-prime” homes in London – worth £10m or above – had more than doubled in the three months to the end of January compared with the same period last year.

He said: “It is quite extraordinary the way the super-prime market has continued to surge ahead. Sales of homes worth £1m-£5m have slowed, but once you get above £5m, and certainly above £10m, they are still powering ahead.”

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