The four royals who don’t work for the palace… but pay no rent

Four non-working royals, including the disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s daughters and the late Queen’s cousin, are being charged discounted rents for living in luxurious palace apartments – and getting it paid for by the King. A report by the Committee of Public Accounts into the Crown Estate – which owns 255 properties inside royal palace grounds – criticised the organisation for “inconsistencies” in rent charged to non-working members of the Royal Family. Revelations about Mountbatten-Windsor’s comfortable living arrangements sparked public backlash over the favourable leases offered to members of the Royal Family earlier this year, prompting MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to launch an inquiry into property deals made between royals and the Crown Estate. “There can be no earthly justification for allowing well-off royals to benefit from substantially reduced rents. It is just another example of the arrogant sense of royal entitlement that they breezily expect something for nothing,” said Norman Baker, a former Lib Dem MP and vocal critic of royal finances. Shorts ‘Reduced-rate scandal’ Seven royal properties are lived in by working royals who get them rent-free in return for helping the King with his royal duties, but three are lived in by members of the royal family who do not perform royal duties. Their rent is meant to be set at 60 per cent of market rate, but this policy was not enforced over many years, the report revealed – raising questions over how much, or how little, they have been charged. The Crown Estate is a commercial body that manages the Royal Family’s portfolio of property on behalf of the monarch. Its profits go to the Treasury to fund public services, so it is required by law to “achieve the best price” it can from renting out the 2,475 properties it manages, including those occupied by the royal family. Baker added: “If the King wants to subsidise members of his family, that is up to him, but the public purse should not lose out. This reduced rate scandal should be ended immediately and if the King has any shame, he should make backdated payments to bring the rents paid up to 100 per cent for the entire period since the leases began.” Princess Eugenie was charged cut-price rent for her Kensington Palace property (Photo: Mark Kerrison/In Pictures/Getty) ‘Inconsistencies’ The four non-working royals who benefit from reduced rent are Princess Eugenie, Princess Beatrice, and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. The King pays for all of their rents from the Privy Purse – his private income generated from the Duchy of Lancaster. “Prior to 2026, outdated residential property valuations led to inconsistencies in the rent charged for non-working members of the Royal family within the occupied royal palaces estate,” said the latest PAC report, published Friday. Property valuations were reportedly reviewed in 2026 following an earlier investigation by the National Audit Office. “These valuations were either out of date or did not exist and were updated during the NAO’s review of residential property arrangements,” the PAC said. Previous reports estimated Eugenie’s rent, for three-bedroom Ivy Cottage on Kensington Palace grounds, would go for £10,000-£15,000 per month on the open market. The King’s Privy Purse is reported to foot this rental bill at around 64 per cent of market rate – £6,000-£9,000 a month. Princess Beatrice’s four-bedroom apartment in St James’s Palace, Westminster, would go for up to £20,000 a month on the open rental market (Photo: AndresGarciaM/Getty) Similarly, reports estimate Princess Beatrice’s four-bedroom apartment in St James’s Palace would fetch around £15,000-£20,000 a month, meaning the King would be paying up to £13,600 a month for her to live there. The five-bedroom apartment of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent in Kensington Palace is harder to estimate, but Buckingham Palace released a statement confirming that the late Queen had paid their rent at £120,000 a year after a scandal of their £69-a-week rent back in 2002. Friday’s PAC report recommended that the Royal Household “should implement its policy for setting rent for all its residential properties”, including regular reviews “to ensure rental income remains aligned with market rates and maximises value for money”. Andrew’s sublets As well as the seven working royals living rent-free in royal residences, the Crown Estate holds five leases of royal properties, including: Forest Lodge, leased to the Prince and Princess of Wales; Bagshot Park, to the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh; and Thatched House Lodge, to Princess Alexandra, the late Queen’s cousin. Mountbatten-Windsor held the lease on Royal Lodge until earlier this year, and was permitted under the terms of the agreement to sublet cottages on the estate and keep the profits. The PAC revealed that all three cottages on the estate were sublet at once “for a period of less than a year” with rents set “below market rates”, generating an income for Andrew of about £2,000 a month. The PAC said during the time Andrew lived there, “one cottage was sublet at below-market rates for most of its tenancy to an in-situ tenant who worked for the Royal family”. Mountbatten-Windsor received private income from subletting three cottages on the Royal Lodge estate. (Photo: Mathilde Grandjean/PA) Though Mountbatten-Windsor no longer holds this lease, the leases on Bagshot Park and Thatched House Lodge both allow subletting. The report said: “There should be a standard provision in leases that prohibits sub-letting, unless the landlord’s prior permission is obtained.” It also noted that it would be “normal practice” for the Crown Estate to receive a share of the profits from sub-letting. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “We are grateful to the Public Accounts Committee and its members for their work on this inquiry. We acknowledge the Committee’s recommendation and will carefully consider it as part of our commitment to continuous improvement.”