Heavy-duty shutters are drawn down over the windows while burly security guards chat outside a gatehouse tucked out of view.
On the driveway, there’s a stream of visitors to the hilltop mansion sold by Prince Andrew to a Kazakhstani billionaire two decades ago.
Pool and spa maintenance specialists are among the comings and goings, while a gardener rides a lawnmower around the grounds.
Yet no one is in permanent residence at Sunninghill Park, the prince’s former marital home near Windsor Castle in Berkshire.
The sale and redevelopment of the home and grounds is one of the strangest riddles of Andrew’s property deals over the past 20 years.
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Since the purchase in 2007, no one is known to have been in permanent residence at the 662-acre estate, which the late Queen gifted to her son and Sarah Ferguson as a wedding present.
One theory locally is that the pile, set back several hundred metres along the drive, is occupied once a year for nearby Royal Ascot, when the King and Queen arrive in a horse-drawn carriage.
Locals told Metro that they have seen no sign of habitation since the original 12-bedroom home was sold by Andrew for £15 million.
With speculation that he may have to leave nearby Royal Lodge as his association with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein continues to haunt him, the former Duke of York’s original marital home lies empty apart from the small army of service staff.
Alex Roche, 47, from nearby Cheapside, was out walking his two dogs in the country lanes overlooked by the property.
‘I used to see Princess Eugenie riding horses around here sometimes, and I would see Sarah out running, there would be police on the front gates and in other places,’ he said.
‘The old house was demolished and the new one is just sat there on the hill, I don’t see or hear of much activity.’
Mr Roche, like other locals who spoke to Metro, is no fan of the prince, who now resides five miles away.
‘There are many royal associations with Cheapside but Andrew is giving a bad name to the royal family and undoing the Queen’s work,’ he said.
‘It would be better to tear the mansion to the ground and return it to nature.’
A short way up the path is a Crown Estate sign partially obscured by the undergrowth — a reminder that Sunninghill Park sits within land ultimately belonging to the monarch.
The prince and the Kazakh billionaire
Prince Andrew is said to have been close to the father-in-law of Sunninghill Park’s buyer, Timur Kulibayev (above).
The prince reportedly accompanied Nursultan Nazarbayev on a goose-hunting expedition during a trip to Kazakhstan.
Mr Nazarbayev was the country’s autocratic president at the same time as Andrew had a roving role as the UK ambassador of trade, with the pair maintaining their relationship after the latter’s job ended.
Mr Kulibayev’s purchase of the mansion via an off-shore trust was only revealed after investigative work by journalists.
Buckingham Palace has previously denied Andrew benefited from work in Kazakhstan undertaken as part of his role.
A couple in their 70s who are also familiar with the area told Metro they had not seen any sign of permanent habitation at the residence.
The man, who did not want to be named, said: ‘Generally it’s been quiet around here. The rumour is that the new owners spent an absolute fortune to only live in the house for one week a year, on Ascot week.’
Sunninghill was owned by Queen Elizabeth on a long lease and she appeared to have given it to Andrew at no cost, according to Land Registry documents. Four years after being transferred into a trust controlled by the Queen’s closest financial advisers, it was sold to an offshore trust belonging to Kazakh billionaire Timur Kulibayev, the Times has reported.
Mr Kulibayev is the son-in-law of the former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, a friend of the prince’s.
The property was sold at £3 million above the asking price, despite having been on the market for five years.
it is now estimated to be worth upwards of £30 million, according to Benham and Reeves estate agents.
Director Marc von Grundherr said: ‘The 2007 sale of Sunninghill Park was unusual at the time, fetching around £15 million after several years on the market and achieving a premium above the asking price despite the property requiring extensive renovation.
‘Given the scale of redevelopment since then, including reports of a full rebuild, the estate’s value today would likely sit comfortably north of £30 million, although much depends on the precise acreage retained and the finish of the main residence.’
Andrew has denied any impropriety, with his spokesman having said previously that the sale was a ‘straight commercial transaction.’
Mr Kulibayev’s representatives have maintained that there was another potential buyer and the purchase was a straightforward commercial and legitimate process.
The oligarch certainly has no shortage of funds to purchase properties, being named joint 673rd place with his wife Dinara in Forbes’ 2025 list of the world’s billionaires.
After showing signs of disrepair, the home was demolished in 2015 with a rebuild — said to have taken the tycoon’s acquisition and redevelopment spending to £33 million — being completed in 2022.
Alongside the shuttered-up appearance on the ground, satellite imagery taken this year shows no vehicles in the grounds, or any other sign of permanent residence.
Nevertheless, workmen were busy on a small construction site to the side of the mansion and new trees have been planted outside, showing the vast expenditure that is going into Sunninghill’s upkeep.
Another local, who also did not want to be named, said: ‘It’s a monstrosity with all the charm of a mansion designed by B&Q.
‘The upkeep goes on around the year and must cost a fortune.
‘There is a small army of people coming and going.’
Andrew, 65, is the focus of ongoing speculation that he may have to leave Royal Lodge amid the continued spotlight on his former association with Epstein and the controversial arrangement which has meant he has paid no rent at the Grade II-listed property for 20 years.
