Camden Market has been put up for sale with a price tag of £1.5bn, six months after its owner said Covid-19 was hitting footfall and rents.

Billionaire Teddy Sagi, who began buying parts of the market in 2014, has asked financial advisors at Rothschild & Co to put the feelers out for prospective buyers.

One insider claimed several had already expressed an interest.

But Mr Sagi’s own representatives would not comment or answer questions about his decision to sell.

Forbes estimates the Israeli businessman's current net worth at $5.5bn USD (£4.4bn).

He owns and operates the market through a network of companies known as “LabTech Investments Group”.

According to LabTech’s website, its 16-acre Camden portfolio includes Stables Market, Camden Lock Market, Union Street Market and the Hawley Wharf complex, which opened last autumn.

The complex, including shops, restaurants, a cinema and a food market, won a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) award last month.

Two years ago, LabTech predicted footfall at its Camden sites would increase from 30m people a year to 50m, causing “rising demand" for space and “an increase in the value of our assets”.

But reports filed with Companies House since then suggest that the pandemic is having an ongoing negative impact on its London investments – which include other sites in Holborn, Kings Cross and Hackney.

LabTech London Limited – a management company for the LabTech Investments Group – reported that in the year up to March 2021 it made a loss of £149,527, even after claiming £911,576 in government grants.

It wrote in a December 2021 report: “Market and retail operations of the group will be disrupted with low levels in consumer traffic in the foreseeable future. Short term delays and low levels in rent collection from existing tenants is expected.”

But the firm claimed that the “prime locations of various company assets” would “ensure continued growth going forward”.

The Ham&High asked whether footfall or profits were down, whether Mr Sagi would consider offers from property developers who wanted to build on current market space, and whether the market’s future was in jeopardy if a buyer was not found. His representatives did not respond.

A source at the Teddy Sagi group said: "We have great faith in Camden. We have invested hundreds of millions of pounds in developing and upgrading Camden Market. Our marketing and development plans have not changed."