Reform's housing policy: own a lot of them

“We absolutely insist that Britain is broken,” Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said on Monday, when announcing the defection of Suella Braverman to his party.

If Britain is broken, someone had better tell his politicians, who are sitting on a healthy pile of property assets.

One of Farage’s latest recruits, former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, was reported in 2022 to control a family property empire worth £100 million. Since standing down as an MP at the 2024 general election, Zahawi has also been busy in the property industry. Research by DeSmog shows that he currently chairs the advisory board at Omniyat, a luxury property company based in the United Arab Emirates.

Luxury property is a subject familiar to Reform’s chair Nick Candy, who runs a real estate firm that caters to the super-rich. Candy owns an 18,000 sq ft apartment in One Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, a building redeveloped by Candy and his brother Christian in 2009. The apartment has been on the market for several years, listed for £175 million, making it the most expensive apartment in London.

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Candy is cut from the same cloth as Reform’s deputy leader – and his reported rival to be Farage’s chancellor – Richard Tice. Speaking to the BBC’s Nick Robinson in May, Tice openly admitted to being born with a silver spoon in his mouth, having profited from the inheritance of his maternal grandfather, Bernard Sunley, a successful property developer. Tice was made a director of the Sunley Group at the tender age of 29.

Recent Reform recruit Robert Jenrick reportedly used to be nicknamed the ‘Four Houses Secretary’ due to his real estate holdings, which apparently include two London properties – a £2.5 million Westminster townhouse among them – and a Grade I-listed manor in Herefordshire.

Not to be outdone, Farage owns various properties of his own – including three properties in Kent and a rental property in Surrey.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that Reform’s last manifesto pledged to “restore landlords’ rights” and abolish the Renters’ Reform Bill, which gave new powers to tenants and was passed into law last year under the Renters’ Rights Act.

Those “anti-establishment” credentials continue to wear a bit thin.