Prince Andrew has lived rent-free for 35 years – most of his adult life
Prince Andrew appears not to have paid rent for 35 years for his residences, first Sunninghill Park and then the Windsor Royal Lodge, according to documents.
Prince Andrew appears not to have paid rent for 35 years and did not directly own Sunninghill Park, the 12-bedroom house that he was given by the late Queen as a wedding present and which has since been sold, The Times can reveal.
The house, on a five-acre (2ha) plot near Ascot, Berkshire, was his official residence between 1990 and 2004.
Land Registry documents show Queen Elizabeth owned the property on a long lease and appeared to have granted Andrew its use at no cost.
The Times also exclusively obtained a copy of the leasehold for his subsequent residence, Royal Lodge at Windsor, which showed Andrew had also not paid rent there for two decades.
The prince agreed to pay £1 million ($2m) for the lease plus at least £7.5m for refurbishments of Royal Lodge, which entitled him and his family to live in the property rent-free until 2078. It means that Andrew, 65, does not appear to have paid rent for most of his adult life.
Queen Elizabeth had leased the property from the crown estate for 125 years in 1987 for an undisclosed amount.
The freehold of the property was owned by the crown estate until August 2003, the same month Andrew signed the lease for Royal Lodge at a peppercorn rent.
Then the freehold of Sunninghill Park was transferred into a trust controlled by Queen Elizabeth’s closest financial advisers for £12,500. Four years later, in 2007, the trust sold the property to an offshore trust belonging to a Kazakh billionaire for £15m.
The sale price prompted controversy, given it was £3m above the asking price for the property, which had been languishing on the market for years.
Representatives for the prince and the Kazakh businessman, Timur Kulibayev, have always stated that there was another potential buyer and that the transaction was purely commercial and legitimate.
The latest revelation shows how Andrew has lived in luxury for most of his adult life thanks to crown estate properties and the monarch’s money.
It will increase pressure on him to heed the wishes of the King, and a growing number of politicians, and give up the Royal Lodge lease.
On Tuesday Robert Jenrick, the Conservative shadow justice minister, called on the prince to leave Royal Lodge because he had disgraced the nation and the public were “sick” of him.
Mr Jenrick said Andrew must lead a “quiet, private life” and no longer be allowed to live in homes that could otherwise benefit the taxpayer.
Other MPs have called on the government to introduce a bill to formally strip Andrew of his royal titles, which have only been put into abeyance with his agreement.
Sunninghill Park was part of a larger estate of 665 acres (269ha). A previous house, built in the 19th century, served as the headquarters to the American Ninth Air Force during the Second World War. It was going to be occupied by the then Princess Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip, after their wedding in 1947, but burnt down. They rented Windlesham Moor in Surrey instead.
In 1986 the Queen bought 5.7 acres (2.3ha) of the estate from the crown estate. Construction began on the two-storey red-brick house, which was said to be a gift for Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, who had married in July 1986.
The couple moved in in 1990. At the time the freehold to the property remained with the crown estate.
The Land Registry said the property was not even listed, given it had been owned by the crown since long before the department’s creation in 1862.
It was only in August 2003 that the Land Registry in effect recorded the property, when the crown estate sold the freehold to a trust, Sunninghill Park Settlement, which was managed by the Queen’s solicitor and the Keeper of the Privy Purse, the Queen’s treasurer. The purchase price for the freehold was £12,265.
Earlier that month Andrew signed the £1m lease on Royal Lodge, which had been the Queen Mother’s home until her death in 2002.
The Sunninghill Park home was demolished by Mr Kulibayev, the billionaire son-in-law of Nursultan Nazarbayev, then the Kazakh president. Mr Kulibayev acknowledged ownership after an investigation by The Sunday Times revealed he was the beneficiary of the offshore trust that owned the property.
Andrew, Buckingham Palace and the Crown Estate were approached for comment.
The Times
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout