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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Rupert Neate

‘This is where people with staggering wealth end up’: who will buy Britain’s most expensive house?

London Britain Knightsbridge CK Kevin Murphy Land Registry Rutland
Four photos of Britain's most expensive house, 2-8a Rutland Gate in Knightsbridge, London, in a grid, all brightly coloured like Andy Warhol's screen prints
A private palace: 2-8a Rutland Gate. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Twice a day for the past 12 years, Markus Roggen, an artist and fashion consultant, has walked past the house at the end of his road and wondered to himself: “Why is it still empty?” Roggen’s road is no ordinary road, and the house on the corner is no ordinary house. It is a 45-room “private palace” with 116 windows, 68 of which have views over Hyde Park, in the most exclusive and pricey corner of central London. Welcome to 2-8A Rutland Gate, officially Britain’s most expensive house, and a property that lies completely empty.

Every day, thousands of people pass the building, which stands on the busy Kensington Road near a stop for the number 9, 23 and 52 buses, but most of them probably don’t give it a second glance.

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