FEAR of crime is driving the super-rich out of period mansions into super-secure flats, according to two brothers who have built a multimillion-pound fortune out of designing homes that are out of the price range even of most Premiership footballers.

This week Westminster council approved plans for the most luxurious apartment block in London: 86 flats in Knightsbridge overlooking Hyde Park and costing up to £20 million each. Security at the Bowater House development will be designed with help from former SAS consultants and will include direct lift access from the underground car park to each apartment, iris scanners, panic rooms and bullet-proof CCTV cameras.

It is the latest venture by the Candy brothers, who in seven years have turned a £6,000 deposit on a student flat in Earls Court into a multimillion-pound empire.

Nick Candy, 33, and Christian Candy, 31, create apartments for Russian oligarchs, British chief executives, American film stars, Arab princes and the new billionaires from India and China. One of their properties, a £27 million flat behind a 19th-century facade in Manresa Road, Chelsea, is the most expensive apartment in London. They are also advising on a building designed by Lord Foster of Thamesbank in Chesham Place, Belgravia, where they expect to sell six flats for between £10 million and £20 million each.

The Knightsbridge development will be their most ambitious yet. Nick Candy said: “It’s very exciting. It will be the world’s best residential building, without a doubt.”

The murder of the banker John Monckton in his £3 million Chelsea townhouse in 2004 has heightened concerns among the super-rich over their personal safety.

Dominic Grace, head of residential development at the estate agents Savills said: “Security is very high on the agenda. Houses are inherently difficult to secure because they are hard on the street and hard to slip in and out of discreetly.”

Nick Candy was working in advertising when he and Christian, 31, a commodity trader, decided to go into business together. After renovating a number of properties for personal use they spotted a gap in the market for dazzlingly equipped apartments for the highest of international high rollers.

Offers flooded in to such an extent that both brothers now live in Monaco. The two have designed properties in Moscow, Monaco, New York and throughout the Gulf. They have also expanded into the market for luxury yachts and private jets.

The Knightsbridge development will be on the site of Bowater House, an unloved 1950s office block not far from Harrods. Details of the individual properties have yet to emerge but previous Candy flats have included an “intelligent mirror” that combines a hidden camera with a 50in plasma screen to show the viewer in full from all angles and a pool table made from solid Venetian glass and baize.

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