John Christodoulou

Yiannakis Theophani "John" Christodoulou (born May 1965) is a Monaco-based British billionaire property developer, the owner of Yianis Group, a privately owned company with a portfolio of residential, hotel, retail and leisure properties in the UK and Europe.[5]

John Christodoulou
Born
Yiannakis Theophani Christodoulou

(1965-05-24) 24 May 1965[1]
Nicosia, Cyprus
NationalityBritish
OccupationProperty developer
Known forOwner, Yianis Group[2]
Net worthGBP £1.8 billion (STRL, April 2020).[1]
Children4[3][4]

Early life

Christodoulou was born in May 1965,[6] in Nicosia, Cyprus. He came to London as a boy in 1974, as his family fled the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

Career

He started with a studio flat, and now owns extensive property in the London Docklands through his Yianis Group.[7]

Christodoulou owns 100% of Yianis Group, which owns the London hotels Marriott West India Quay and the Canary Riverside Plaza (formerly Four Seasons Canary Wharf).[5] He owns Wool House in London.[5]

As of April 2020, his net worth is £1.8 billion, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2020.[1]

The value of Christodoulou's property holdings increased by 25% in the 12 months to April 2019 to £1.5 billion, due to a buoyant London rental market.[8]

John Christodoulou is a proven entrepreneur and philanthropist who is an example of the bright lights within the UK Cypriot diaspora who retain a strong passion, pride and interest in their homeland of Cyprus. [9]

Personal life

Christodoulou lives in Monaco with his wife and four children.[3] He has a $50 million 74m yacht, Zeus, previously owned by Aidan Barclay.[10]

Charity

Yianis Christodoulou Foundation

Christodoulou is involved in philanthropic endeavours. Inspired by his own childhood, displaced from his homeland as a child, he founded the Yianis Christodoulou Foundation (YCF),[11] which seeks to support disadvantaged children and their families in the UK and abroad. The charitable foundation has a special focus on poverty alleviation and education.

Christodoulou has donated £1 million to the eponymous philanthropy organisation.[12]

The property magnate has also hosted high-profile fundraising events, such as the 2017 Star Ball at the Hilton Manchester Deansgate where over £1.5 million was raised.[13]

In December 2018, Christodoulou's foundation ran a Christmas card competition, with the cash prizes going to a number of Cyprus primary schools for teaching resources and new infrastructure.[14]

COVID-19

The Yianis Christodoulou Foundation funded the distribution of free food packages offered to the homes of 355,000 members of the Cypriot community in the UK for the in need, vulnerable and elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic.[15] YCF distributed 6,107 International Workers' Day appreciation energy snack-packs to health professionals and workers across all public hospitals in Cyprus.[16] The eponymous philanthropy organisation also funded 6,000 individual care packs for the NHS staff at The Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel, London.[17]

Honours and awards

Christodoulou won the Foreign-based Cypriot Entrepreneur of the Year 2013 award from IN Business Magazine.[18][19]

Christodoulou is the president of the Monaco and Cyprus Jubilee Sailing Trust.[20]

Controversies

Christodoulou's business practices have attracted considerable media attention. The Times notes that "his company has been challenged by residents of a luxury development of more than 300 flats who complained they were being charged sky-high service charges and unreasonably high sums for repairs."[3] This is a reference to Canary Riverside, where Christodoulou was stripped of day-to-day management control over the property in October 2016, with a professional court appointee installed to act in the best interests of the site. Leaseholders were able to prove fault against CREM, a subsidiary company,[21][22][23] that they had suffered over many years due to poor management of the estate, in particular a lack of transparency surrounding how their money was being used.[24] Tribunal judges found that Marathon Estates, the Christodoulou-appointed managing agent, "has been unable to produce accurate financial information on time, including budgets and accounts, has not engaged with leaseholders and has a muddled hierarchy of command."[25]

Similar complaints of estate mismanagement by Christodoulou leaseholders at 1 West India Quay have emerged in a Sunday Times feature on the so-called leasehold property scandal.[24] Leaseholders there have taken legal action against Christodoulou over expensive energy bills, raising concerns that they have been subsidising his commercial interest on the site.[24][26] In May 2014, they won the right to form a recognised residents' association, despite Christodoulou having hired a QC and spent £74,000 in trying to block their efforts.[27]

Christodoulou has also been named in parliament, with former MP for Poplar and Limehouse Jim Fitzpatrick claiming that the litigation and threats faced by the court-appointed manager at Canary Riverside are "little short of harassment".[28] A former secretary of the 1 West India Quay residents' association has been subjected to a defamation threat by Christodoulou's lawyers, as have 100 leaseholders at neighbouring Canary Riverside.[25] In July 2018, his lawyers unsuccessfully sought to prevent the then local MP, Jim Fitzpatrick, from raising the case of Canary Riverside in parliament. It had been claimed that Fitzpatrick's intervention could breach sub judice rules.[29]

In April 2020, The Guardian reported that tenants at Somerford Grove, east London, were denied a 20% rent cut, in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic and their allegedly precarious employment situations. The renters are said to have been told by the lettings agent, acting on behalf of the three corporate landlords all “majority owned” by Christodoulou, that the request was “unreasonable” and “unrealistic”.[30] The agent had suggested that “any drop in tenants’ income would be minimised by a reduction in spending on holidays, entertainment, travel, clothes and lunches.” London mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted: “This is a prime example of how unrealistic it is to expect landlords & tenants to sort difficulties out amongst themselves,” and that the story is “exactly why” he is calling on government to “introduce immediate measures to protect tenants who go into arrears” because of the public health emergency.[31] These tenants were later threatened with legal action by the lettings agent and alleged harassment and surveillance by agent-hired security guards.[32] After continuing to make public statements about the situation, several tenants received eviction notices in August in what Hackney Mayor Philip Glanville called a "revenge eviction" and "a direct response to [the tenants] seeking greater security for themselves and their neighbours at a time of crisis."[33]

References
  1. "Rich List 2020 profiles 51-100". Sunday Times. 16 May 2020.
  2. "Cyprus: the Eurozone's comeback kid". The Economist. December 2016.
  3. "Tax haven rich list part 2: Billionaires with a grip on Britain from abroad". The Times. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  4. "John Christodoulou". monacowhisky-spiritsclub.com. n.d. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
  5. "About us". yianis.com. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  6. "Yianis Group Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  7. "From studio flat to being richer than McCartney: tycoon is new entry in Sunday Times Rich List". Evening Standard. 30 April 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  8. "Docklands property tycoon sees value of empire rise". Evening Standard. 7 February 2019. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
  9. "The Role of the Diaspora in Cyprus's Fourth Industrial Revolution". cyprus-mail.com. 26 January 2021. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
  10. "Zeus yacht". superyachtfan.com. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  11. "Yianis Christdoulou Foundation". yianischristodouloufoundation.com. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  12. "John Christodoulou donates £1 million to the Yianis Christodoulou Foundation for children". bdaily.co.uk. Retrieved 11 January 2018.
  13. "Yianis Christodoulou Foundation and the amazing night in Manchester for charity". parikiaki.com. 16 October 2017. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  14. "Βραβεύτηκαν μαθητικές χριστουγεννιάτικες κάρτες (εικόνες)". philenews.com. 24 December 2018. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  15. "The Yianis Christodoulou Foundation founder helps UK Cypriot community". cyprus-mail.com. 17 April 2020. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
  16. "John Christodoulou of the Yianis Christodoulou Foundation thanks all the public hospital workers in Cyprus". cyprustimes.com. 28 April 2020. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  17. "20 Pallets of Care Packs a Total of 6000 boxes were delivered to the Royal London Hospital by Yianis Christodoulou Foundation". parikiaki.com. 20 May 2020. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  18. "6th Annual IN Business Awards". goldnews.com.cy. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  19. "Yianis the entrepreneur". city.sigmalive.com. 8 March 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
  20. "John Christodoulou Appointed JST President of Monaco and Cyprus". jst.org.uk. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  21. Graham, Hugh (5 February 2017). "Service charges: what you need to know". Sunday Times. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  22. "Battle for Canary Riverside resumes after court appointed manager steps down". Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. 7 June 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  23. "Riverside CREM 1 Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  24. Lees, Martina (14 April 2019). "Leasehold: why every homeowner should be worried". Sunday Times. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  25. "John Christodoulou minions get the boot at Canary Riverside". Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. 1 October 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  26. "Tribunal to rule on whether West India Quay leaseholders are subbing the energy costs of the hotel below". Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. 19 December 2018. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  27. "West India Quay's victory against £74,560 legal onslaught … for a recognised residents' association". Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. 24 May 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  28. "Billionaire John Christodoulou and his lawyer David Marsden accused of 'little short of harassment' of court-appointed managing agent". Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. 22 December 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  29. "Canary Riverside's lawyers at Trowers & Hamlins in 'ill-conceived' bid to thwart Parliamentary debate". Leasehold Knowledge Partnership. 25 July 2018. Retrieved 9 June 2019.
  30. "Tenants told to use lunch and holiday savings to pay full rent". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  31. "This is a prime example of how unrealistic it is to expect landlords & tenants to sort difficulties out amongst themselves. It's exactly why I'm urging the Govt to introduce immediate measures to protect tenants who go into arrears because of #COVID19". Sadiq Khan. Retrieved 2 May 2020.
  32. Hosea, Leana (22 August 2020). "Hackney tenants 'targeted' after asking for rent reduction". BBC News. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
  33. "Tenants Are Facing 'Revenge Evictions' After Demanding a Rent Reduction". Vice. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
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