What National Audit Office report reveals about royals’ property affairs

A view of part of St James’s Palace, where one of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s daughters lives in an apartment rent free, despite being a ‘non-working royal’. Photograph: Tartezy/Alamy View image in fullscreen A view of part of St James’s Palace, where one of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s daughters lives in an apartment rent free, despite being a ‘non-working royal’. Photograph: Tartezy/Alamy What National Audit Office report reveals about royals’ property affairs King footing bill for Beatrice and Eugenie, and Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh subletting among findings A report that revealed Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received undisclosed private income from subletting three cottages on his Royal Lodge estate in Windsor while paying a peppercorn rent to the crown estate also shines a spotlight on the property arrangements of other members of the royal family. The National Audit Office findings include the revelation that King Charles foots the bill for Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie’s accommodation in royal palaces, despite both being “non-working royals” (in that they don’t carry out royal duties), and that the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh also benefited from subletting their crown estate property. 1. Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie The daughters of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who do not perform royal duties, live rent free in occupied royal palaces. Rent on Beatrice’s St James’s Palace apartment is currently set at 68% of open market value. Rent on Eugenie’s Ivy Cottage at Kensington Palace is set at 64%. King Charles pays both rents out of his private Duchy of Lancaster income, continuing an arrangement made by his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, which is kept under regular review. Rent is adjusted because the properties are behind security cordons requiring security vetting for tenants. Both royals have private properties: Beatrice a converted Cotswold farmhouse close to Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire; Eugenie a seaside property in Comporta, Portugal. Maintenance and operational costs of occupied royal palaces are met by public funds through the sovereign grant, which pays for the royal family’s official duties and the upkeep of royal palaces. Sources say rent paid for the two properties by Charles reimburses any publicly-funded expenditure with no additional cost to the sovereign grant. Eugenie is said to have undertaken refurbishments of her Kensington Palace property at her own expense. 2. Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh Edward and Sophie pay a “peppercorn rent” after signing a long lease of 150 years in 2007 for Bagshot Park in Surrey, with an upfront payment of £5m to the crown estate. They also held a previous lease from 1998 to 2007, with a committed restoration spend of £1.38m. They also have a rent-free apartment at St James’s Palace, London, managed by the royal household, in return for performing royal duties. Under their crown estate lease, they are entitled to sublet on the Bagshot Park estate, and generated private income