Sean Mulryan standing next to the Sky Pool at Ballymore’s Embassy Gardens development in Nine Elms
(Picture: Greg Funnell)The multi-millionaire property tycoon behind the controversial south-west London Sky Pool at Nine Elms has bemoaned a lack of affordable housing in the capital.
Sean Mulryan, chairman and chief executive at Embassy Gardens developer Ballymore, said it was “outrageous” that key workers were struggling to buy their own homes.
Ballymore’s Sky Pool links the rooftops of two tower blocks featuring million-pound apartments in Wandsworth’s Nine Elms neighbourhood.
But Mulryan told Spear’s, a magazine targeted at high-net-worth individuals, that cities like London needed more affordable housing for “normal” people.
“It is the biggest thing in my life – why a normal guy can’t own a house,” he said. “The costs of the houses are way too high, and a nurse can’t afford a house.
“You just can’t afford to raise your family. I mean, it’s outrageous. Two people on £50,000 – on a decent salary – they still can’t afford a house. Every city needs affordable housing [for] key workers.”
Founded by Mulryan and his wife Bernardine in Ireland in the 1980s, Ballymore soon turned its attention to the opportunities in London.
The firm bought Old Spitalfields Market in 1999 and transformed it into a thriving modern visitor destination.
At Marsh Wall, close to Canary Wharf, Ballymore built the towering Wardian development, stacking 767 homes across two towers 50 and 55 storeys high. A podium at ground level houses a grand lobby and communal facilities including shops, a cinema room, and a waterfront café.
Mulryan told Spear’s he was once London’s largest private landowner.
“I was the biggest,” he claimed. “Going back to 2010, we had the equivalent of, I think, 25,000 lots in central London.”
But Mulryan said the housing market in the capital was becoming increasingly difficult for developers.
London housing prices “have not gone up at all” in recent years, he told Spear’s, while “costs are going up dramatically”.
“So it means the margins are dropping. You’re going to have less and less development in London now.”
Nonetheless, the 68-year-old still has an extensive work list in the capital. This includes developing the Royal Docks, creating 1,700 homes at Canary Wharf’s One Mill Harbour, and building 4,000 apartments and “a huge amount” of commercial space in Edgware.
“I’m not stepping down, under any circumstances,” he insisted.
