grilles block the windows of another, which has been sold for £20m. But that doesn’t stop the prices going up. Dryades, a mansion until recently owned by a Pakistani politician, sold for £12m in 2007 and is believed to be worth about £30m today. Heath Lodge, the scene of the 1984 murder, by silver bullet, of fashion tycoon Aristos Constantinou, is worth £13m today, after having been sold in the late 1970s for £400,000. The dereliction can be agonizing for people struggling to keep a roof above their heads in one of the world’s most expensive cities. One security guard working on the avenue said it was exasperating to see so many tens of thousands of square feet of property – enough to house dozens of people – falling apart. Royals flushed with oil wealth from Nigeria and Saudi Arabia were among the first to come to this curving road near Hampstead Heath. Iranians fled here after the fall of the shah. Now, Chinese house hunters are following Russians and Kazakhs who have spent millions securing an address estate agents tell them is as world famous as the Champs Elysées and Rodeo Drive. Recently, two mansions have been on sale for £65m and £38m, promising endless Italian marble, leather-padded lifts and luxury panic rooms. However, in the grounds of the empty mansions, stone fountains crumble and lawns have become bogs. Inside one, water drips through a huge