Untold Riches: why the super-wealthy are going off the grid

You can’t hide a home as easily as a boat. Or can you? The hottest trend in London property these days is ‘the anonymous home’. A large apartment in new developments such as Twenty Grosvenor Square, 21 Manresa Road and The Glebe in Chelsea can fetch as much as £5,000 per sq ft because they offer near anonymity if bought through a private company, plus security and the hotel-style amenities the wealthy crave: room service, concierge, gym, spa, pool, housekeeping, valet parking. ‘A giant stand-alone mansion in Chelsea or Kensington is too obvious,’ says property consultant Charles McDowell, whose iPhone groans under the weight of all the 0.001-per-centers he has helped to find top-notch homes for in the capital. ‘Many now prefer to hide behind the anonymous façade of a block of very fancy flats.’

Other security features the rich ‘need’ include fingerprint-activated locks, programmable staff keys to control access, blast-resistant windows, security shutters, smart thermal imaging cameras that detect suspicious activity, and fixed line and mobile telephone and internet encryption. This can typically add £3m to the price of a five-bedroom property. Children are taught not to reveal their family’s location on social media. ‘I’ve been to some houses that are more like the NSA [America’s National Security Agency just outside Washington DC] than a family home,’ jokes one of London’s leading security consultants.

All these new property developments are a champagne flute’s throw away from the most private of private clubs where the wealthy can relax without fear of scrutiny — or prying mobile phone cameras. Quintessentially, London’s leading concierge outfit, reports that requests for ‘nightlife’ — tables at high-end restaurants and nightclubs — have fallen by a fifth in recent years in favour of more discreet entertaining. Robin Birley’s Oswald’s on Albermarle Street is currently the unmarked address to drop. Membership price on application.

The rich still like spending, of course. And what better way to invest discreetly than to buy a little art to hang on the walls of your homes in every time zone. The relative weakness of the UK economy following the Brexit vote has not yet affected sales in London, says Dr Clare McAndrew, founder of art research and consulting firm Arts Economics. ‘The UK is still attracting enough buyers from around the world,’ she says. Most shopping lists these days contain a Yayoi Kusama (probably a pumpkin) and a Jaume Plensa (probably a head), maybe an Ai Weiwei or an Anselm Kiefer. Dealers report that Jeff Koons remains the world’s most expensive living artist — at least until David Hockney pips him, as is widely expected, at Christie’s in New York later this month. David Zwirner gallery sold out its stand at last year’s Frieze before the VIP opening, selling a Koons from the Gazing Ball series for £2.1m.

For many of those lucky enough to have all the things they could ever want, the greatest status symbols are experiences, and travel is the most extravagant. The latest trend in go-anywhere holidays is to play global hopscotch on a private jet. Entrepreneur Shelley

Cline invented the game. She has taken the cruise ship model — great destinations, seamless travel, all-inclusive charging — and replaced the boat with a private jet. And not just any jet. Her firm TCS World Travel has exclusive charter arrangements with TAG Aviation, based in Farnborough, for VIP Boeing 757s that come with expert guides for each destination, plus a doctor and security specialists.

Cline waves her clients off on some of the wildest, most luxurious trips on the planet. Departing soon is Best of Africa — a three-week safari on your ‘custom-configured’ private jet taking in the rock-hewn churches of Ethiopia, the plains of the Serengeti or Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, the jungles and mountain gorillas of Rwanda, the vineyards of South Africa, the Namib desert, the Okavango Delta, Victoria Falls and the beaches of the Seychelles. The price of the poshest package holiday ever? £340,000 for a family of four.

The concept of ‘life extension’ championed by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and Google co-founder Sergey Brin has helped to raise interest in futuristic spas that offer you a better — longer — future. The Bossavy Institute in New York has intravenous drips for hangovers or jet lag and an LED light bed for what the company calls ‘anti-ageing on steroids’. Other services include the Ballancer Pro, an inflatable jacket or pair of trousers that uses air pressure to squeeze excess fluids from the body (don’t ask where they go). These delights can be yours for £2,300 to £6,500 a month.

Medical tourism is on the rise, too. ‘Requests for wellness services have increased by 21 per cent since 2016,’ says Ben Elliot, co-founder of Quintessentially. ‘Disconnecting and back-to-nature retreats have taken on a new importance.’ One favourite is the Waldhotel in Switzerland, which offers sports medicine, dentistry, orthopaedics, nutritional advice and dermatology.

You need to arrive at your clinic or holiday retreat in the right frame of mind, which means a private jet. Clive Jackson, founder and CEO of Victor, London’s leading jet charter outfit, says fliers from London — ‘unquestionably our busiest city’ — are opting for newer aircraft models, notably the £16.5m Embraer Legacy 500 and longer-range £50m Gulfstream G650. The G650 comes with a smart fridge that automatically updates the ground crew when it is running low on champagne.

For those who have to slum it in commercial, airlines are creating classes better than first. Singapore Airlines offer six suites, with a separate bed and chair, on the upper deck of its new Airbus A380. There is one fight attendant for every two suites. Some families book the lot — £43,000 return from London to Singapore — creating the biggest private cabin in the sky.

Everywhere you look London’s global elite is busy proving that money can buy privacy. The only remaining snag in these egalitarian times is the embarrassment of admitting to ‘civilians’ how well off they are. The answer? Nifty verbal gymnastics. When asked how they fly when they go on holiday, one west London family likes to reply: ‘Oh, we just take the easy jet’ — by which they mean, of course, the easiest jet of all: their own.

Illustrations by Joe Mclaren.