London CallingAre the brothers who paid a record £959m for the 13-acre site of the former Chelsea Barracks trying to spend the UK out of a downturn, wonders Angela Pertusini

I'm not sure I understand the luxury market. I don't follow how, while estate agents everywhere are privately reporting the slowest trading in 15 years or more, the market in properties worth north of £5 million is said to be cut-throat. How did these people get to be so rich if they're not prepared to cut a deal? What exactly makes a home worth that price? (Having seen a couple in the past month or two, I am still not sure I know.)

And more pressingly, if you had recently broken British records by paying almost £1 billion for a plot, would you not want to dig in deep and concentrate on achieving the £5,000 per sq ft you needed to make that development work?

But this week it was confirmed that the Candy brothers, who paid £959 million for the 13-acre site of the former Chelsea Barracks last year,are sniffing around hoping to buy up some ailing property giants on the back of this purchase.

Partially funded by Qatari investors, the brothers are believed not to need the backing of anything as vulgar as a lending house to swoop on any of the big names and have confirmed that they are actively looking at options both within and outside the UK.

Meanwhile, work is due to start on Chelsea Barracks; poignantly, the Tristams and Ruperts of the Coldstream Guards who were deployed there have been moved to the rather less salubrious environment of Woolwich in south east London. The new 650-unit scheme will be designed by Richard Rogers as was their Hyde Park scheme, where the £4,000 per sq ft ceiling was broken with the penthouses rumoured to be on sale at £84 million each. According to reports, up to half the Chelsea Barracks scheme will have to include affordable housing - one can only speculate how this will be arranged.

The scale, prices and vision of Chelsea Barracks - some apartments could be offered at £20 million or more - certainly shows a thrilling confidence on the part of the Midas-like brothers. Or it could be that, at just 31 and 33 years old (I know, I know), they have no memory and no fear of economic recession and are doing their best to spend the country out of a downturn.

ALTHOUGH there may be a smidgen of "mixed use" at their Chelsea development - an extremely upmarket hotel, perhaps - the Candy brothers have staked their claim firmly in the residential market thus far. Not so, another pair of brothers, Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz (pronounced Chen-geez), ailing kings of the commercial property world.

Having fled Iran after the Shah's overthrow, the brothers bought a flat in Marylebone, and flipped it making a £26,000 profit. They were away and in recent years were estimated to have holdings worth £10 billion with personal fortunes approaching £1 billion, acquiring everything from cinema chains to supermarkets.

Crucially, however, they relied heavily on borrowing to build their empire and, as the credit crunch has become ever grittier, Robert's worth (he is the more out-there of the partnership, having dated models and socialites) is said to have dipped by an eye-watering £560 million in just three months.

Mostly this has been due to falls in share prices - he has always boasted that much of his corporate buying has been linked to the businesses' hidden land values - but the downturn in commercial property values has also caused difficulties: the sale of his £490 million Shell Mex building last summer was £50 million below asking price. However, with unfailing chutzpah, the troubled tycoon claims that he has no intention of giving up the little luxuries of his life such as his Monaco-moored yacht: "I love my boat. I have no intention of selling it."

Thankfully for the rest of us, untroubled by such problems, the bonus news is that several estate agencies in London are reporting huge demand for rental properties as would-be buyers sit and wait. Rental prices are up by as much as 15 per cent and voids are narrowing. Let's hear it for the downturn!