How Harry and Meghan became the $180m couple

Their home has tripled in value, tech giants have done big deals – and Diana left son Harry a fortune.

The gate of the estate where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have their house, in Montecito, California. Picture: Valerie Macon / AFP

The hillside home where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are building a new life is private, enormous and 8000 km away from the wrath of the royal family. It is also turning out to be a spectacularly good investment.

The couple have barely been spotted out and about since their move last summer to Montecito, a discreet Californian enclave of millionaires, billionaires and global celebrities in Santa Barbara County, northwest of Los Angeles.

They have, however, already derived a lucrative benefit: nine months after they cobbled together the funding for their home it has soared in value, estate agents said this week, with one predicting the property might now be worth almost three times what they paid.

The asset is a boost to their already considerable net worth, which is thought to amount to nearly £100 million ($180m).

The Santa Barbara spread said to be the home of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, now estranged from the royal family. Picture: Google Maps

The nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom mansion is in a desirable area close to hiking trails into the Santa Ynez mountains and with views over the Pacific. The area’s winding lanes and stone walls might evoke a Cotswold village – if the Cotswolds looked more like Hawaii.

However, when the duke and duchess bought the property for $US14.65 million (about $19m now) last June, it was a financial stretch. According to the deeds, which do not feature their names and instead list the owner as a trust that shares a postal address with Meghan’s Hollywood business manager, they took out a $US9.5m mortgage.

Still, the couple bought their home at the right time, Randy Solakian, an estate agent with Coldwell Banker Global Luxury, said.

He knows their house well because he represented the couple who built it when they sold it to the previous owner, Sergey Grishin, a Russian businessman.

It includes a gym, spa, cinema, separate guesthouse, tennis court, pool, a children’s play area and, as the world knows, a shed for rescued battery hens – none of which could be seen from the road in the past week in the 30 seconds before a security guard appeared and pointed out that the street, while not gated, was private.

Mr Solakian added: “It would have been really ugly if they’d paid 40 million [US dollars, or $51m] for it, which is what it’s probably worth, but I would say they got a bargain.”

The knowledge that his home was a good investment could prove reassuring to the duke, who said during his interview with Oprah Winfrey, which was broadcast in the past week, that his family had cut him off financially.

While he did not go into detail, he was likely to be referring to the allowance he received from Prince Charles, which amounted to an income of about £2.5m a year through the Duchy of Cornwall.

That said, the couple are unlikely to find themselves hard-up any time soon. Harry, 36, is thought to have at least £23m of inheritance assets from Princess Diana and the Queen Mother, assuming they have been cautiously invested. The couple also signed a deal with Netflix last year and were said to be seeking a contract worth £71m, although the value of the final agreement was not disclosed.

They have a deal with Spotify to deliver podcasts which is said to be worth £18m, as well as several other potential sources of income.

In December, the duchess, 39, announced an investment in a company called Clevr Blends which makes instant oat-milk lattes. She is reported to have brought an estimated £3m to their marriage from her acting career and Harry is likely to have a small army pension.

Accounting for their publicly reported assets and deals, their net worth is thought to be about £96m ($172m).

Their apparent wealth is unlikely to stand out in their new neighbourhood. Winfrey bought the first 42 acres (17ha) of her own vast Montecito estate, a five-minute drive to the east, for $US50m in 2001 (she has since added nearly 30 acres [12ha] to the property).

That deal led to the first true paparazzi invasion of Montecito. Mr Solakian, who sold her the property, said: “Months of helicopters, like bees swarming, flying over her property. And then they just all went away. And Oprah would jog down the street or push her shopping cart at the grocery store and nobody mobbed her.”

It remains unclear whether that will prove to be true of the duke and duchess too, but for the moment “whatever they’re doing to sustain themselves is not local. This is their sanctuary.”

Since the northern summer the property market in Montecito has gone “crazy”, Sandy Stahl, an agent with Sotheby’s International Realty, said. It wasn’t the arrival of the duke and duchess that caused the spike, she said, although “this was really a smart move for them”.

The Sussexes’ estate would sell for “at least double” what they paid, Ms Stahl said, noting that a mansion very close to their home that was on the market for $US21m is “not nearly as nice”.

A woman walks on Butterfly Beach in the new hometown of of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, who recently bought The Chateau of Riven Rock in the Montecito neighbourhood of Santa Barbara. Picture: AFP

Hardly anyone in Montecito admits to having seen the couple or their son, Archie, although many locals have been keeping their eyes open. People in the community talk about the Sussexes “endlessly”, said Richard Mineards, a former British gossip columnist who now writes a waspish diary for the Montecito Journal.

They appear never to have visited their two nearest coffee shops, or either of the local grocery stores or the smart boutique with a baby clothes section a few minutes from their house. The neighbourhood Italian restaurant has never knowingly sold them a pizza but there is a rumour the duke once popped to Vons, the community’s supermarket.

The only place that the duke and duchess have definitely been is Lucky’s, a steakhouse on the main commercial street. They were photographed when they came with friends in October.

Every sighting creates a stir, even among people used to sharing their streets with famous residents such as Ellen DeGeneres and Orlando Bloom. “Yes, we’ve got celebrities. We’ve got billionaires,” Mineards said. “But as far as I know we’ve never had any royals.”

There have been royal visitors though. A decade ago the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge spent an afternoon just down the coast at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club. “My father, the Prince of Wales, and my brother were as green as that grass when I told them I’d be here,” he said.

Ten years on, his brother and sister-in-law are still waiting to make an appearance. “It would be absolutely wonderful if they joined,” Molly Quigley, the clubhouse manager, said. “I’m obsessed with both of them.”

The Times