Royal Rent Controversy
NAO Report Reveals Royal Princesses Lived Rent-Free in Palaces for Years, Sparking Criticism
A new National Audit Office report says Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie have lived in palace residences for years without paying rent, with their housing bills covered by their late grandmother Queen Elizabeth II through the Privy Purse and continued under King Charles after her death. The arrangement, which is tied largely to the Duchy of Lancaster, has drawn criticism because the sisters do not carry out royal duties despite having outside careers and families. The report also adds to a wider controversy around Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, including claims that he paid only a peppercorn rent for a Windsor property while charging others for living there and receiving income linked to subletting cottages on his Royal Lodge estate. It further contends that Beatrice and Eugenie’s rents were adjusted downward due to security-clearance requirements and that those calculations relied on outdated open-market valuations. Critics argue the setup reflects entitlement and raises questions about who should bear residential costs, while supporters point to funding for security and official arrangements. The palace has not commented, and the report’s findings are criticized as lacking public disclosure of key cost breakdowns and rental agreements.
Key Points
The NAO-backed reporting places the sisters’ housing timeline in specific properties: Beatrice lived at St James’s Palace from 2008, Eugenie later moved to Kensington Palace in 2018; Eugenie reportedly now splits time between London and a home in Portugal, while Beatrice stayed in the Kensington apartment she shares with husband Edo Mapelli Mozzi and their family (and she also owns a home in the Cotswolds).
The reporting adds concrete financial framing around the Privy Purse/Duchy-linked arrangements, describing the Duchy of Lancaster-linked property inheritance-tax position as a “£650million property estate” and saying the Duchy provides “about £25million per year,” which is used to fund official duties not covered by taxpayers and maintain private royal estates such as Balmoral and Sandringham.
On the Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor cottage issue, one account quotes the NAO directly, saying: “Three cottages on the Royal Lodge estate were also sublet with income generated from subletting payable to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.” It also reports that sources suggested the subletting “did not generate a profit” and that the rent was set to cover maintenance and staff living costs—while noting that no figures or copies of rental agreements have been made public.
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