Situated in a 212-acre estate of unspoilt Surrey countryside and notable for its distinctive domed cupola, there's just one problem with the English stately home Nutbourne Park - it isn't built yet.
Set on the site of the former Nutbourne brickworks near the village of Hambledon in Surrey, 45 minutes' drive from London, the property is on the market for £20 million (Dh114.4m). For your money you get the land and a few drawings of an imposing 12-bedroom Queen Anne-style mansion designed by the country house specialist Adam Architects, for which the estate has planning consent.
The eventual buyer will then have to shell out another £10m to £15m to build the house which the estate agents Hamptons International and Savills say could be worth as much as £50m when completed.
When news of the planning consent first broke in 2010, rumours abounded in the local area that the estate was being built for the heir to the throne Prince William and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge.
Mock Palladian designs for the estate include nine en-suite bathrooms, a basement swimming pool, a tennis court, a tree-lined driveway approach, large courtyard stables and a row of staff cottages, while the main house is topped by an 18.3-metre cupola.
However, room has been left for the estate's new owner to customise the inside layout of the yet to be built mansion as he sees fit - or of course he could choose a completely different design.
"A lot of our buyers have spent more than two years looking for the perfect property," said John Denney, the country house director at Hamptons International, one of the agents marketing the project. "With this project they can design their own perfect home to their own specifications and have it completed within two years. And for Middle Eastern buyers especially that's a big attraction." The agents are set to start marketing the project heavily in the Middle East and Far East over the coming weeks. But for anyone tempted to buy Nutbourne and come up with his own particularly sumptuous or wacky design, Mr Denney has a word of caution.
"I've sold some newly built mansions that didn't quite work and in the end didn't fetch the guide price. A lot of buyers tend to prefer classic designs. The Robert Adam design here is perfect and I would have no qualms about reselling that in a few years time."
lbarnard@thenational.ae
