These dwellings hide more than their fair share of secrets, as former homes of some of the world's most (in)famous intelligence operatives they are nothing short of fascinating. 

Click or scroll through to take a sneak peek inside eight bonafide spy homes, from the London townhouse where World War Three was averted, to the New Jersey home that harboured undercover Russian agents, and the Sydney safe house that provided sanctuary to two Soviet spies who changed the course of Australian history.

Sergei Skripal had been sentenced in 2006 to 13 years in Russian prison for passing secrets to the UK's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, having been recruited by British spies in the 1990s.

Following his release, the double agent moved to Salisbury in England, and in 2011 he bought a modest semi-detached house there for $318,000 (£260k). Skripal kept his head down but got on well with his neighbours and frequented the local convenience store, where he was captured on CCTV on 27 February 2018.

Five days later, the double agent and his daughter Yulia were found collapsed on a public bench in the Wiltshire city. The pair were rushed to hospital and put in induced comas. Police officer Nick Bailey was sent to Skripal's home and he too became seriously ill. All three survived what UK law enforcement soon realised was a botched assassination attempt on Skripal using the lethal Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok.

By the end of March 2018, the British authorities had discovered that Skripal and his daughter were poisoned at his home, which is why Detective Sergeant Bailey had become so sick as well. The highest concentration of Novichok was found on the handle of the front door and traces were likely found in other parts of the house, including the living room.

Needless to say, the Kremlin denied any involvement and the suspects later appeared on Russian state-funded TV insisting they were innocent tourists visiting the “wonderful” city and its famous cathedral. Tragically, local woman Dawn Sturgess died on 8 July 2018, after unwittingly spraying the nerve agent on her wrist. Her partner had found what he thought was a bottle of perfume and gifted it to Sturgess, though the bottle, in fact, contained Novichok and had been discarded by the Russian agents.

Despite calls to demolish Skripal's home, Britain’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) undertook a painstaking decontamination of the toxic four-bedroom house, which involved an incredible 13,000 hours of deep cleaning and the removal of the roof. The property was then handed back to the council and thoroughly refurbished. It was put up for sale in early 2023 under the local authority's shared ownership scheme. It now appears to have a new owner.

As one of the notorious quintet of double agents known as the Cambridge Five, Donald Maclean was recruited by the Soviets in 1934 while he was studying at the eponymous university. After landing a job with the British Foreign Office, the notorious traitor began providing the KGB with information, which became increasingly sensitive as he rose up the diplomatic ranks. He began passing on top-secret intelligence, including details of British and American atomic weapons programmes.

In May 1951, Maclean received a warning that his cover had been blown and that fellow Cambridge Five spy Guy Burgess had also been rumbled. With counterintelligence operatives closing in, Maclean and Burgess made the decision to defect to the USSR, choosing 25 May 1951, Maclean's 38th birthday, to make their audacious escape. Following work at the Foreign Office that day, Maclean returned home to his manor house in the village of Tatsfield in Surrey, where his wife had prepared a birthday meal.

Built in 1918, Beacon Shaw, as the traditional manor house is called, was occupied by the Canadian Air Force during the Second World War. According to contemporary news reports, it was snapped up by Maclean in around 1950 for £7,000, the equivalent of $240,000 (£197k) today, and originally had 10 rooms.

Maclean reportedly enjoyed his last supper in the UK in the dining room, which has since been converted into this living room. Burgess joined the party at some point in the evening, then Maclean bid farewell to his wife and children, and the double-crossing duo made their getaway. Law enforcement arrived not long after – it was reported that the food on the plates was still warm – but Burgess and Maclean were well on their way to Southampton, where they took a ferry to France and pretty much disappeared.

Five years later, it was confirmed the spies had defected to the USSR, where Maclean died in 1983. 

Following her husband's defection, Maclean's wife sold the property at a loss and it was subsequently split into two. She later joined him in Moscow. Over the years, the now-divided manor has passed through a number of owners.

In 2019, a couple who'd recently bought one of the semi-detached homes made a startling discovery: a secret cache of bullets hidden under floorboards in the loft. There was speculation that the ammo belonged to Maclean, though other local sources say they were more likely squirrelled away by Luis De La Torre, a decorated war hero who lived in the property from 1955 to 1962.

Seemingly an all-American family, Richard and Cynthia Murphy lived what appeared to be a humdrum suburban life with their two young daughters in a leafy locale on the outskirts of Montclair, New Jersey. Cynthia worked as a financial analyst in Manhattan, while Richard was a stay-at-home dad, or at least that's what their neighbours thought. 

The low-profile couple reportedly bought the cookie-cutter four-bedroom, three-bathroom property in 2008 for $481,000 (£393k). Despite the pair's thick Russian accents, which didn't fit at all with their Irish surname and Richard's claim he was a native of Philadelphia, their neighbours had zero inkling who they really were and what they were really doing in the US.

To the neighbourhood's astonishment, the pair were sleeper agents for the SVR, the modern successor to the KGB, and were gathering intel on everything from the US gold market to the American stance on arms talks with Russia. Richard and Cynthia Murphy were, of course, aliases and their real names turned out to be Vladimir and Lidiya Guryev.

The FBI descended on the property one fateful day in late June 2010 and arrested the couple, having deduced they were part of a network of 10 Russian spies the Department of Justice called the 'Illegals Program'. Among the plants was the headline-grabbing Anna Chapman, who was described widely in media reports as "Russia's most glamorous secret agent".

Following the arrest, the property was confiscated by US authorities and lay vacant until 2017, when it was eventually sold for a bargain $340,000 (£278k). As for the Guryevs, who went on to inspire hit FX show The Americans, they were exchanged in July 2010 together with their eight comrades for four operatives held in Russia, in what was the biggest spy swap since the end of the Cold War. Included in the deal was former Russian military officer and double agent Sergei Skripal.

Top Saudi spymaster Saad Aljabri was a close advisor to the nation's ex-heir apparent, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (often referred to as MBN). He is credited with foiling a number of terrorist attacks thanks to his work with Western intelligence agencies. In 2015, Aljabri was fired by MBN's arch-rival Prince Mohammed bin Salman (abbreviated to MBS), who was convinced he was plotting against him in cahoots with MBN.

In June 2017, King Salman deposed his nephew, MBN, as crown prince in favour of his son, MBS. A month before the ousting, Aljabri, who feared for his life, fled Saudi Arabia and eventually sought refuge in Canada. In December 2017, he snapped up this lavish nine-bedroom, 13-bathroom mansion in the country for $9.5 million (£7.8m).

The 22,000-square-foot mansion wows from the get-go with a double-height grand salon entryway boasting stunning millwork and a showstopping staircase. But Aljabri's life in exile is far from idyllic. He alleges that in October 2018, MBS sent his personal mercenary group, the Tiger Squad, also known as the Rapid Intervention Force, to Canada to assassinate him.

That same month, Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul. According to a declassified report, US national intelligence concluded that MBS approved the operation and that the Rapid Intervention Force was likely involved with the murder.

Aljabri alleges that he dodged the same fate as Khashoggi after MBS's hit squad were intercepted by Canadian authorities at Ottawa’s Macdonald-Cartier International Airport. The claims were made in a civil case filed in a US court by Aljabri in August 2020. MBS responded by filing a motion to dismiss the case, accusing Aljabri of stealing billions from the Saudi counterterrorism fund. The case was eventually dismissed for US national security reasons.

In January 2021, Sakab, a holding company owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is reportedly controlled by MBS, sued Aljabri in a Canadian court for allegedly embezzling funds. Aljabri's assets, including the Canadian mansion, which features a pool, home cinema and other luxe amenities, were frozen.

In the meantime, several members of Aljabri's family, including his eldest son and daughter, were imprisoned in Saudi Arabia on trumped-up charges, according to Human Rights Watch. The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called for their release, while Ottawa has been urged to intervene in the Canadian court case, which Aljabri claims was filed to intimidate and silence him.

Pictured here with his family outside their townhouse in London's Chelsea, businessman Greville Wynne, who traded electrical equipment in Eastern Europe, was recruited by MI6 in 1960. He acted as a courier, transporting top-secret info to the British intelligence service from Russian KGB double agent Colonel Oleg Penkovsky. It was in the five-bedroom property that Wynne held covert meetings with Penkovsky.

Wynne and Penkovsky regularly crossed paths on the businessman's travels in the Eastern Bloc, but their most crucial meetings occurred in this Grade II-listed townhouse. While in London, Penkovsky was extremely cautious about meeting in public and would only rendezvous with Wynne in his family home. Both men were fond of a drink or two, and together they came up with a cunning plan to have a well-stocked bar built in the historic property.

The pair persuaded their respective intelligence spy agencies to fund the amenity, with each reportedly suggesting that the other would blab covert information once under the influence of copious amounts of alcohol. The KGB and MI6 agreed and the men received a total of £1,000, around $22,000 (£18k) in today's money. Only a tenth of the total was spent on the bar itself, while the remainder is said to have gone on booze and other entertainment.

The information passed to Wynne by Penkovsky proved invaluable during the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest the world has ever come to nuclear annihilation. Based on the intel, the US realised Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev was bluffing, which in turn de-escalated the confrontation and managed to divert a potential World War Three. But the KGB soon discovered what the men had been up to.

Mere days after the crisis, Wynne and Penkovsky were arrested in Eastern Europe and tried in the USSR in 1963. According to official accounts, Penkovsky was executed by firing squad, though Wynne later claimed he committed suicide. Wynne was sentenced to eight years in prison but ended up being released in 1964 as part of a spy swap. He died in 1990.

A veritable time capsule, the townhouse was meticulously preserved in all its mid-century glory and last sold in 2015 through Russell Simpson for $7.3 million (£6m).

Vladimir and Evdokia Petrov arrived in Australia in 1951, ostensibly as diplomats at the Soviet embassy in Canberra. But the married couple were in fact secret agents tasked with forming a network of spies down under. Following the death of Josef Stalin in 1953, secret police chief Lavrentiy Beria was executed. The Petrovs were seen as staunch supporters of Beria, and this combined with the fact they'd been unable to establish a meaningful spy network, put them in a very dangerous position.

The couple were likely to have been executed if they returned to the USSR. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was aware of this and worked on getting Vladimir to defect. He did just that on 3 April 1954, without telling his wife.

The Soviets accused the Australian authorities of kidnapping Vladimir and sent agents to repatriate Evdokia but word got out, sparking public protests over what was seen as her forced removal. Prime Minister Robert Menzies then ordered her release as the plane transporting her back to the USSR stopped to refuel in Darwin, and Evdokia defected on 20 April 1954.

Following their defection, the couple were moved to various safe houses, including this property in the Sydney suburb of Avalon Beach.

The five-bedroom, four-bathroom house was most recently put up for sale in 2016. Estate agent Steve Fitzmaurice did some digging and discovered that the property was one of four safe houses in the Sydney area that provided sanctuary to the Petrovs. It was bought in 1954 by the Australian authorities using a compulsory purchase order and sold after 18 months.

The dead giveaway turned out to be the secret trap door hidden under built-in seating in the open-plan living room. Had KGB agents managed to locate the couple, the couple would have used the trap door to make their escape. The Petrovs were assigned new identities and in the strictest of secrecy, moved to Melbourne, where they lived out the rest of their lives in one of the city's suburbs.

Vladimir died in 1991, while Evdokia passed away in 2002. The Petrov Affair, as the saga is called, had a major impact on Australian politics and resulted in the split of the Australian Labor Party and the creation of the Democratic Labor Party in 1955. Despite its fascinating history, the property appears to have failed to sell at its asking price of $3.5 million (£2.9m) and was taken off the market.

FBI agent Robert Hanssen joined the bureau in 1976 and went on to become the most damaging spy in the service's history. The notorious traitor began providing highly classified information to the KGB in 1985. Following the fall of the Soviet Union, Hanssen continued to provide state secrets to its successor, the SVR, until 2001, when his crimes were finally uncovered.

According to the FBI, Hanssen received $1.4 million (£1.1m) in cash, bank funds and diamonds for the information he provided, part of which no doubt helped finance the house he purchased with his wife, Bonnie, in Vienna, Virginia in 1987. The couple paid $205,000 for the five-bedroom, four-bathroom property, which translates to around $555,000 (£456k) today.

Hanssen was caught red-handed while he was making a dead drop under a footbridge in Foxstone Park, not far from his Vienna home. In July 2001, the crooked FBI agent pleaded guilty to 15 counts of espionage and was sentenced in May 2001 to life imprisonment without parole. Surprisingly, US authorities opted against confiscating the property.

After Robert's conviction, the house was put solely in Bonnie's name. The spy's wife eventually listed the property in the spring of 2011 for $725,000 (£596k). This grainy pic is from the original listing. As you can see, the furniture and décor look traditional and somewhat dated. It's likely the home's interior looked similar during Robert's tenure. 

The house failed to sell, so Bonnie dropped the asking price to $680,000 (£559k). Despite the discount, nobody wanted to buy the property and it was removed from the market. Bonnie had better luck in 2014, when the market had presumably picked up. She eventually sold the home for just under $700,000 (£575k).

The CIA's first civilian director, Allen Dulles was appointed America's chief spymaster in 1953. As head of the intelligence service, Dulles created illegal, highly controversial programmes such as Project MKUltra, which conducted nefarious mind control experiments on humans between 1953 and 1973. He also oversaw a number of contentious operations, including CIA coups in Iran and Guatemala, as well as the catastrophic Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba in 1961, which cost him his job.

Bolstering the controversy surrounding him, Dulles went on to serve on the much-maligned Warren Commission investigating the death of President John F Kennedy. The Commission concluded that JFK had been killed by a single assassin with one "magic" bullet, though that theory is now in question following the publication of a book by the former president's one-time Secret Service agent.  

But before he became the CIA's director, Dulles was a lawyer in New York and resided in this imposing townhouse in Lennox Hill on the Upper East Side. Dulles also owned a home in Long Island and later resided in Washington, DC.

The turn-of-the-century property was recently listed for sale by Douglas Elliman with an asking price of just under $10 million (£8.2m). Spanning over 5,100 square feet and spread across five storeys, the six-bedroom, seven-bathroom townhouse exudes Gilded Age grandeur in its formal rooms, which include this elegant wood-panelled salon.

The informal spaces are less fancy but are also traditional in style. The property later served as the headquarters of the Seagram Foundation, which installed a commercial-grade elevator, a unique feature that adds to the prestige of the townhouse. More recently, the property was owned by Maria Morra and Noah Gottdiener, executive chairman of financial risk and advisory giant Kroll.

Interestingly, Kroll was hired by the former Russian president Boris Yeltsin in 1992 to track down billions of dollars in cash, gold and jewels that were smuggled out of the Soviet Union by Communist Party officials, another connection that the townhouse has with the Cold War. However, the firm wasn't able to come up with goods.

Loved this? Like and follow us on Facebook for more fascinating stories