EXCLUSIVE Russian millionaire blasted over 'Britain's most expensive council house' forced to make drastic move a year after listing four-bed semi for £3.5m
A Russian millionaire who tried to sell a London 'council house' for £3.5m has been forced to concede defeat and make a drastic u-turn.
The ordinary-looking four-bed suburban property had attracted widespread mockery due to its eye-watering price tag when it was listed last year.
But owner Lukov Nikolov refused to bow down claiming the fee was justified because he spent £1.4m renovating the property.
When MailOnline visited the house this week, more than a year after it was put on the market, neighbours revealed the wealthy businessman had been forced 'move in himself' after failing to find a buyer.
The house was built in the late 1950s and used by police officers relocating to work in London for the Met Police.
But in every other respect it's equivalent to nearby council housing in style and size.
Despite being unable to find househunters with deep enough pockets, Mr Nikolov has now listed another property on the same road for £3m.
One resident told MailOnline: 'He's got another one too, just up the road, which has been on the market for a while.
This was because he said spent £1.4m renovating the property in the leafy neighbourhood
'The [second property] is huge. It's got a basement, a cinema and all the rest of it. They've probably doubled the square footage.
'I think he probably moves between them.'
When MailOnline approached Mr Nicolov's wife Srebrina at the property listed for sale we were no told no comment would be made.
Mr Nikolov bought the first property for £1.2m in 2015 and began to renovate inside.
He was able to dig down and create a new spacious basement 'flooded with natural light', which increased the properties' square footage by a third.
The home now deceptively spreads over 3650sq ft of interior space and has four floors as well as its own cinema room, which, in the view of Mr Nikolov justified the £2.3million increase in value.
Mr Nikolov's second property was bough for the cheaper fee of £878,000 before renovating it too.
Properties in Canonbury sold for an overall average price of £934,290 in the last few years, according to RightMove, with the majority of sales being flats, which sold for an average price of £633,512.
Terraced properties sold for an average of £1,659,972, with semi-detached properties fetching £3,873,333 - placing Mr Nikolov's property slightly below average.
The price of homes in the family-friendly London neighbourhood also soared over the last few years by nine per cent.
But even though prices are on the rise in the area, many of Mr Nikolov's neighbours thought he was being too optimistic when he first listed the property.
One man told MailOnline at the time: 'That can't be right! If that sells for £3.5million, I will put my house on the market for £5million the next day. It won't sell for that much in a million years.
'They'll never get that, even with a basement put into it. His other property on the road is very nice, he put a lot of effort into the renovations. But £3million will be silly.
'Most of the little houses along here range from £1.3-1.8million depending on what they have done to them.'
Another neighbour agreed, saying: 'That's not worth it for the price. They are smoking crack if they think they will get that amount!'
But some of their friends think the Bulgarian may be on to a winner.
One said: 'He's a nice guy and is always joking with people.
'I think it will sell for the price. People love this road, it doesn't feel like you live in London when you're here. Some of the houses along this road go for about £5million, so it's not the most expensive place here.
'If you renovate properly, you can easily double the value of your home here.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
43 minutes ago
- The Independent
DragonForce and Scattered Spider: Inside the hacker groups linked to M&S cyberattack
Marks & Spencer has finally reopened its online orders, months after a cyber attack which is set to cost the British high street retailer £300 million in profits this year. This comes as a new hacking group has been connected with the incident, after it was revealed the DragonForce group sent M&S CEO Stuart Machin an email days after it faced a major cyberattack gloating about the hack and demanding ransom payment. The email, seen and reported by the BBC, said: 'We have marched the ways from China all the way to the UK and have mercilessly raped your company and encrypted all the servers.' DragonForce aren't the only group that have been connected with the attack on the retailer, as the Scattered Spider network had previously been named as the enactors of the social engineering attack. According to Sergey Shyekevich, a researcher from cybersecurity company Checkpoint, more hacker groups are forming alliances on the dark web. 'Co-operation between two powerful groups is very interesting,' he says. 'It's one outcome we see on the dark web more and more, alliances between big groups.' Here's all we know about the two hacker groups What is DragonForce? DragonForce is a hacker organisation that offers Ransomware to cyber-criminal affiliates for a 20 per cent cut of any ransoms collected. This means that for a fee, they lease out their malware through dark web marketplaces to cyber-criminals. While the organisation originally started working in 2023, they've had a massive re-marketing of their business model in the past couple of months. 'In the last two months, they started to become very active in one of the biggest dark web forums,' says Sergey, who says they have marketed themselves as a 'Ransomware Cartel', cornering that market on the dark web in the past month. 'They started being more aggressive I think a few weeks before all the attacks in the UK,' he adds. Researchers have claimed they operate out of Malaysia, with some disputing this and saying they are located in Russia. As well as the M&S hack, DragonForce has been linked to the Co-op cyberattack. What is Scattered Spider? Scattered Spider is a community of hackers that targets huge organisations across different sectors using social engineering tactics. 'They're very good at social engineering of different types,' Sergey says, adding that in the past they have used SIM swapping and impersonated IT staff to trick people into letting them use their systems. Believed to be a community of young adults across the US and UK, the group gained notoriety for their involvement in hacking and extorting two of the largest casino and gambling companies in the United States. 'They understand human nature and how big corporations work,' says Sergey. 'They're very successful.' In 2023 they were linked to the hacking and extortion of Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International, which led the former to pay a ransom of approximately £11 million ($15 million). They were able to access a significant number of driver's licence numbers and possibly even Social Security numbers of the casino customers through the ransomware demand. A 17-year-old hacker from the United Kingdom was arrested in connection with the hack and attempted ransom in July 2024. How did the cyberattack happen? M&S first disclosed they had experienced a cyberattack on 22 April, which had disrupted their online operations and even halted contactless payments. Hundreds of agency workers at the company were told not to come into work as the retailer dealt with the fallout of the cyberattack. Customer personal data – which could have included names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth – was also taken by hackers in the attack. M&S revealed last month that the attack was caused by 'human error', as Mr Machin said in an annual figures report in May that the hackers gained access to the company's IT systems through a third party. He said at the time: 'We didn't leave the door open, this wasn't anything to do with under-investment. Everyone is vulnerable. For us, we were unlucky on this particular day through some human error.' Responding to attacks on the retail sector, the NCSC put out advice to the industry and responded to speculation that the Scattered Spider group had used social engineering to target IT help desks and perform password and MFA (multi-factor authentication) resets. 'Criminal activity online – including, but not limited to, ransomware and data extortion – is rampant,' their blog post wrote. 'Attacks like this are becoming more and more common. And all organisations, of all sizes, need to be prepared.' Deputy Director Paul Foster, head of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, said: 'Specialist NCA cybercrime officers are working closely with law enforcement partners to investigate the recent cyber incidents affecting the retail sector. Identifying the criminals responsible and bringing them to justice is a top priority. 'We are considering the incidents individually, but have a range of hypotheses and are mindful they may be linked. 'The impact of these incidents has been significant and businesses will understandably be concerned. I'd encourage all organisations to follow advice on the NCSC's website to ensure they have effective cyber security measures in place to help prevent attacks. 'I'd also urge those that do unfortunately fall victim to an attack to engage with law enforcement as part of the reporting process. The NCA and policing will investigate covertly and discreetly, as well as support the recovery of systems and data.' How much money has M&S lost? The fallout from the cyberattack saw the company lose £650 million of value in a matter of days. M&S said it expected to take an estimated £300 million hit to profits this year, as they predicted disruption to its online business to last into July. What has M&S said in response? As M&S reopened its online operations, they put out a statement which said: 'You can now place online orders with standard delivery to England, Scotland and Wales. Delivery to Northern Ireland will resume in the coming weeks. 'We will resume click and collect, next-day delivery, nominated-day delivery and international ordering in the coming weeks.'
Western Telegraph
44 minutes ago
- Western Telegraph
Starmer and Reynolds meet US commerce secretary in push to implement trade deal
The Prime Minister dropped in on a meeting between Howard Lutnick and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds in Downing Street on Tuesday. Mr Lutnick was in London for talks with China on resolving the trade war between Washington and Beijing, and Mr Reynolds took the opportunity to meet him in person to push for the UK-US trade deal announced last month to be implemented as soon as possible. The meeting follows talks between the Business Secretary and US trade representative Jamieson Greer in Paris last week. Under the terms of the agreement announced by Sir Keir and Donald Trump, the US will implement import quotas that will effectively eliminate tariffs on British steel and cut the levy on vehicles to 10%. But the deal has yet to be implemented and tariffs on both steel and cars remain at 25%, although the UK has been spared the increase on steel duties to 50% that Mr Trump imposed on the rest of the world last week. In a post on social media, Mr Reynolds said he had discussed 'progress on our trade deal – including UK autos and steel' with Mr Lutnick. UK officials remain hopeful that the deal will be implemented soon, but Tuesday's meeting does not appear to have moved the issue beyond both sides agreeing the need to move quickly. Speaking in the Commons last week, Sir Keir said he was 'very confident' that tariffs would come down in line with the deal 'within a very short time'. Implementing the deal will require the UK to pass legislation, likely to involve regulations rather than a full Act of Parliament, while the US will also need to create a legal mechanism to bring steel and vehicle quotas into effect.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
UK lawyer loses bid to overturn misconduct findings over $3 bln windfall
LONDON, June 10 (Reuters) - A British lawyer who stood to receive up to $3 billion from Nigeria over a collapsed gas project on Tuesday lost a bid to overturn court findings that he acted corruptly out of greed. Seamus Andrew had represented Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), a little-known British Virgin Islands-based company, in a long-running legal battle with Nigeria that ended in a court victory for Africa's most populous country. Nigeria had been facing a bill for $11 billion, representing around a third of its foreign exchange reserves, after P&ID won an arbitration case over the collapse of a 2010 gas supply deal. But London's High Court in 2023 overturned the damages bill after finding that P&ID had paid bribes in connection with the underlying contract and the resulting arbitration. P&ID had denied paying bribes and accused Nigeria of institutional incompetence. Its application to appeal against the High Court's decision was refused. The court had also found that P&ID's lawyers, including Andrew, received confidential Nigerian documents during the arbitration, which they knew they were not entitled to see, with a judge describing Andrew's conduct as "indefensible." Andrew could have received 20% of all proceeds recovered from Nigeria, up to $3 billion of the $11 billion award, after becoming a director of P&ID and acquiring a stake in the company in 2017 following the end of the arbitration. Andrew applied to the Court of Appeal to overturn the findings against him, arguing that inadequate reasons were given for the criticism and that he was not given proper notice that findings would be made against him. But his application for permission to appeal was refused, with Judge Julian Flaux ruling on Tuesday that Andrew had brought his application too late and that, in any event, the criticism was adequately reasoned, foreseeable and justified. "Overall, the finding that Mr Andrew's conduct was indefensible was plainly correct," Flaux added. Andrew said in a statement: "Although I am disappointed by the outcome of my appeal, I believe that I acted in accordance with my professional duties and I am confident that my position will be vindicated in due course."
