How much rent do you pay? Whatever it is, it’s more than Prince Andrew, who pays no rent to live at the Royal Lodge, a 30-room mansion with 98-acre grounds in Windsor. It has recently emerged that the disgraced royal lives in such grandeur on a peppercorn rent, as questions mounted over his ability to afford to stay there – given the King cut off payments for his allowance and security.
While Andrew was required to spend £7.5m on the property refurbishment as part of the original deal with the Crown Estate, and paid a one-off £1m to lease it for 75 years, he hasn’t actually had to pay any rent since moving into the house in 2003.
I asked the Windsor-based estate agent, Marshalls, how much rent would cost for such a property. A lettings associate there told me “we would feel confident of achieving £67,000.00pcm for this property including the various cottages in the grounds”, meaning Andrew should be paying £804,000 a year in rent.
My source added: “In the marketing we’d emphasise the local benefits such as the two Windsor mainline stations, the motorway network and Heathrow, the off street parking as well as some of the interesting neighbours.”
Quite the sell, but not nearly as attractive a prospect as a free mansion to live in. Housing crisis – what housing crisis?
[Further reading: How the Prince Andrew saga overshadowed Virginia Giuffre’s tragic life]
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