Inside the £9 Billion Property Empire of Asif Aziz
Asif Aziz, the 59-year-old billionaire property developer known as 'Mr West End', commands one of Britain's largest real estate empires. His company Criterion Capital, founded in July 2006, manages a $9 billion portfolio spanning more than 50 buildings in London and thousands of residential units across the UK and Europe. The portfolio encompasses 30 commercial properties, nine hotels with 1,769 rooms, and 1,511 apartments, with ambitious plans for over 8,500 additional hotel rooms and more than 4,000 residential units by 2027.
Yet behind the charitable donations and Oxford Street Ramadan lights displays he sponsors alongside London Mayor Sadiq Khan lies a trail of controversy that has earned him a far less flattering moniker: Britain's meanest landlord.
The Britannia Point Crisis
The 18-storey Britannia Point tower in Colliers Wood exemplifies the concerns surrounding Aziz's property management. Formerly known as the Brown & Root Tower, the 1960s office block was voted London's ugliest building in a 2006 BBC poll. After sitting vacant for ten years, Criterion Capital redeveloped it into residential accommodation.
Residents have endured years of maintenance failures including broken lifts, no hot water, and a dangerous incident in June 2022 when a window pane fell from the 12th floor. The incident prompted emergency safety works that identified 69 windows across the tower requiring replacement. As of 2025, Merton Council was still owed £3 million by Criterion Capital for these emergency repairs.
This summer brought a new crisis when 60 homeless families placed in emergency accommodation had their air conditioning units switched off during a heatwave. The building's extensive glass creates a greenhouse effect that renders it dangerously hot. Sabrina Walters, 31, described how her one-year-old daughter was 'dripping with sweat' and her 12-year-old suffered constant nosebleeds. Another mother rushed her four-year-old son to A&E after he experienced fainting episodes.
Local MP Dame Siobhain McDonagh wrote to property management firm Aura Assets Management highlighting 'multiple cases in which families have been subjected to dangerously hot conditions'. The air conditioning had originally been installed only after previous safety concerns when the building became so hot that lifts automatically shut down as they do during fires. Residents reported being quoted prices ranging from £70 for a month to £500 for summer use of the cooling systems.
Mass Eviction Controversy
Earlier in 2026, Criterion Capital faced fierce criticism for attempting what local councillor Stuart Neaverson described as 'the biggest mass eviction in London's history'. Hospital worker Becky Vogt, who works on a mental health ward at nearby St George's Hospital, received an email announcing the company's intention to take possession of Britannia Point, displacing hundreds of residents. Tenants reported receiving Section 21 'no-fault' eviction notices.
The timing proved particularly controversial. Section 21 evictions were officially abolished in England on 1 May 2026 under the Renters' Rights Act, ending landlords' ability to evict tenants without providing a reason. Reports emerged that hundreds of tenants across England received such notices in the final days and hours before the ban took effect, with solicitors reporting surging requests to serve last-minute evictions. The Britannia Point evictions appeared to be part of this wider pattern.
Mayor Sadiq Khan declared himself 'appalled', stating it was 'completely unacceptable for Criterion Capital to evict hundreds of people out of their homes due to no fault of their own'. Dame Siobhain feared Criterion planned to empty the tower to rent to local councils seeking temporary accommodation for the homeless, thereby making 'more money with less responsibility'.
Following the backlash, Criterion Capital reversed course, claiming it never intended to implement mass evictions. Yet tenants remained sceptical. A 42-year-old father of two said:
Rent has gone up by hundreds of pounds in the past few years and they still haven't fixed the lift. We've been told there's been a U-turn on the evictions but I'm yet to have a visit or hear back directly from Criterion.
From Malawi to London's West End
Aziz's journey to property tycoon status began in Malawi, where he was born in 1967 into a family running a successful clothing import company. The family moved to London when he was seven, and he attended private school in Cheshire. At just 16, he entered the property market, convincing an auctioneer he was 18 to successfully bid £1.9 million for a South Kensington building for his family's firm. The bemused auctioneer recalled him as 'this tiny, fresh-faced guy at the back of the room'.
His early property ventures proved unsuccessful, prompting a move to Angola in the 1990s. There he secured lucrative contracts with Nestle, Kraft and Unilever to distribute products during the country's civil war. He sold this company a decade later in a multi-million-pound deal, though the Lebanese buyers later sued, accusing him of inflating its value and misusing company expenses. Despite an email emerging in which he asked his chief accountant: 'Can we not bull**** the numbers another way?', Aziz denied the claims.
The Trocadero Transformation
Proceeds from that sale enabled Aziz to purchase the Trocadero in 2005 for £220 million. Originally opened as a restaurant in 1896, the landmark building was transformed into a major entertainment complex in 1984, becoming one of the UK's largest leisure centres with an MGM cinema and games arcade before closing in 2011. When Aziz acquired it, the venue was attracting 68 million visitors annually.
Two decades later, the stucco-fronted landmark operates as a 728-room hotel. His plans for a controversial two-storey mosque in the basement, later revised to a prayer room and community centre, drew criticism, particularly given simultaneous plans for a casino on the same site.
Cinema Under Threat
The Prince Charles Cinema, located four minutes from the Trocadero, faced its own battle with Aziz's Zedwell LSQ Ltd company. Last year the cinema, described by Trainspotting director Danny Boyle as the 'ninth wonder of the world', launched a petition claiming Zedwell and Criterion Capital were using 'significant financial resources to intimidate us'.
The proposed new lease included a rent increase, shorter agreement and crucially a six-month break clause. The cinema believed this would be activated should Zedwell obtain planning permission for hotel development on the site. The petition garnered 100,000 signatures within 24 hours and attracted support from Hollywood stars including Paul Mescal. For now, the cinema appears safe.
The Tax Evasion Question
Aziz's properties have become linked to a concerning pattern of tax avoidance. Last year, MP Joe Powell stood in Commons suggesting that gaudy gift shops in central London were operating 'phoenixing' schemes. This tax evasion practice involves businesses continuing to trade whilst being quietly taken over by new legal owners every few months, enabling past debts and taxes to disappear without payment to HMRC.
Investigative news site London Centric found that at Criterion Capital's three gift shop retail units near Piccadilly Circus, at least 10 different tenant companies failed to file their accounts over a five-year period. The shops, typically selling sweets, fridge magnets and Royal Family face masks, were nominally leased by students in Bangladesh and India. Registered business addresses were traced to overcrowded flat shares, car parks, and one case a car park doubling as a fly-tip. Every single tacky gift shop investigated had been rented from companies owned by Asif Aziz.
In June 2026, HMRC conducted coordinated raids on multiple central London gift shops, including Harry Potter stores, in collaboration with Westminster Council, the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office. While landlords have no legal obligation to monitor tenants' tax affairs, the practice raises questions about Aziz's ethical oversight.
Pubs and Community Spaces
Aziz has also been accused of buying and closing at least 30 traditional British pubs to make way for luxury apartments, and replacing London's Central YMCA, a historic community gym and health club, with an upscale hotel.
Councillor Neaverson said:
For years, Colliers Wood has been on the frontlines of learning what it's like to be near an Asif Aziz-owned property. Since his company bought Britannia Point, the problems have been non-stop and tragic. Sadly, Asif Aziz and Criterion's disgraceful behaviour is not just limited to Colliers Wood, but to buildings across the capital.
Operating from Abu Dhabi
Despite his British business interests, Aziz made Abu Dhabi his tax residency in 2024, relocating there whilst continuing to manage his UK property portfolio. A former colleague described him as squeezing British tenants for 'every last penny' from his Middle Eastern base.
The publicity-shy developer has historically responded to criticism by accusing detractors of 'Islamophobia' and describing himself as 'an easy target' and 'a shining symbol of London's rich diversity'. He once said: 'London is full of unique spaces, and I saw opportunities to reimagine and shape them.'
Yet as controversies mount over evictions, maintenance failures, pub closures and alleged tax evasion facilitation, Londoners are increasingly questioning whether they share his vision for the city's future. The reaction to the Britannia Point crisis and other scandals suggests many have already delivered their answer.
