house and I’ve never seen her. There are about three houses that are lived in 24/7 and half of the properties are occupied three to six months a year. The other half, who knows if they come or not?” The multimillion-pound wrecks are evidence of a property culture in which the world’s richest people see British property as investments. One Hyde Park, a block of apartments in Knightsbridge, is another example where more than half the flats are registered with the council as empty or second homes. Nevertheless, the talk on the avenue is about building £5m apartments, instead of £50m mansions, in an effort to draw people back. Anil Varma, a local property developer, has decided to rebuild one of the most valuable sites on the avenue as a collection of 20 apartments with a concierge, maid service, 25-metre pool, spa and cinema. “If you build a big house and try and sell for £30m to £40m, it won’t sell,” he said. “Locals won’t buy and so you have to bring in overseas buyers.” But the prospect of the avenue’s empty property being used to help solve the housing crisis remains distant. Andrew Harper, a local Conservative councillor, laughed when asked whether some of the derelict housing could become affordable homes. He said the land price would be prohibitive. “Very wealthy people own property there,” he said. “Sometimes they live in them and