It’s a big week in the world of royal family house moves. Andrew Mountbatten Windsor — now stripped of his titles — and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson are being forced out of their Windsor home, while the Prince and Princess of Wales have moved into their “forever home” less than two miles away.
Conveniently, the royal family’s vast private property portfolio, estimated to be worth more than £6 billion, does not leave its members — even those with ties to a convicted sex offender — short of choice for where to go next.
Here’s everything you need to know about the royals’ latest moves.
Moving out: Andrew and Fergie
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and ex-wife Sarah Ferguson’s time at Royal Lodge, their home of over 20 years, has finally come to an end.
It is believed to be worth £30 million – although it has been reported that the building is currently in need of some TLC, with signs of roof damage, peeling paintwork and black mould on the exterior.
In recent years, as Andrew’s connections with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have emerged, he has been under increasing pressure to move out of the Grade II-listed, 30-room mansion on the Windsor estate.
Last year, it was reported that he declined an offer to relocate to Frogmore Cottage, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s former five-bedroom Windsor address.
And with public scrutiny building, King Charles was said to be “losing patience” over his brother’s living arrangements, cutting off his £1 million royal allowance last year and forcing him to bear his security costs, estimated at £3 million a year, himself.
This in turn has prompted questions about how Andrew was able to pay for the upkeep of the house, since his only known income is his modest £20,000-a-year navy pension.
Last week, following the emergence of email correspondence between Andrew and Epstein, as well as allegations published in Virginia Giuffre’s posthumous memoir that she had been forced to have sex with the prince on three separate occasions, Andrew was stripped of his titles and told to vacate. Andrew continues to deny the allegations made against him.
“His lease on Royal Lodge has, to date, provided him with legal protection to continue in residence,” wrote the Palace in a statement. “Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease and he will move to alternative private accommodation.”
Andrew moved into Royal Lodge in 2004, signing a 75-year tenancy agreement with the Crown Estate which, it was revealed last week, allowed him to avoid paying rent for more than two decades.
Instead, he paid £1 million for the lease and a further £7.5 million on refurbishments in 2005, which was seen as a way of avoiding public expense.
Although Andrew received payments from the public purse for his work as a royal between 1978 and 2010, there have long been questions about how this was funded. Ferguson moved into the property in 2008, despite having divorced from Andrew in 1996.
Royal Lodge is a grand, ivory-coloured Georgian mansion set in Windsor Great Park. The estate boasts a chapel lodge, six cottages, a gardener’s cottage, security accommodation and, reportedly, a host of leisure features: a pool, golf driving range, tennis courts.
In the gardens, there is even a two-storey, thatched-roofed summerhouse called Y Bwthyn Bach (The Little Cottage), which was built in Cardiff, gifted to the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret by the people of Wales and transported to Windsor in 1932.
The property is so extensive that the family have been able to host large events at home, including both Beatrice and Eugenie’s wedding receptions and a masked ball for Beatrice’s 18th birthday, where it was recently revealed that Andrew had invited attendees Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein.
So where will Andrew and Fergie go next? Andrew will move into private accommodation on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, at his brother’s expense.
He is set to receive a six-figure payout and annual payment as part of his “relocation settlement”, it has been reported. And as per his lease, he is entitled to a £558,000 “compensatory sum” for moving out of the property before its expiration in 2078. The move is likely to take place after Christmas.
Sandringham, which has been in the royal family for more than a century, is privately owned by the King and used as a royal retreat.
But with around 20,000 acres of land and 150 properties, it looks like Andrew has options.
Top choices include York Cottage, where George V lived before becoming king; Park House, birthplace of Princess Diana; or Gardens House, a four-bedroom, red-brick Edwardian property which was once home to the estate’s gardener and is currently available to the public as a holiday let.
There’s also The Folly, which it is also possible to rent. According to its website, it was built in 1800 as a hunting lodge and features stone hearths and a wraparound Douglas fir balcony, costing upwards of £2,499 per week to rent. Prices for Gardens House, meanwhile, start at £2,999 per week.
Beyond Sandringham, there is also speculation that the disgraced Andrew may choose to go further afield. Last week, it was reported that Abu Dhabi’s ruler, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has offered Andrew his luxury seafront villa, which features high security, a private cinema, gym and swimming pool.
Ferguson, on the other hand, is understood to be making separate living arrangements after moving out of Royal Lodge. Earlier this year, she sold her Belgravia townhouse for £3.85 million – £400,000 less than what she’d paid for it three years ago.
The couple’s two children, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, will retain their titles, although neither are working royals. Beatrice, 37, works for a tech firm, while Eugenie, 35, is the director of an art gallery.
Beatrice, who married property developer Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in 2020, splits her time between an apartment in St James’s Palace and her £3.5 million, six-bedroom Cotswolds farmhouse with a pool, “party barn” and tennis courts.
Eugenie married marketing executive Jack Brooksbank in 2018 and is primarily based in Portugal, residing at the three-bedroom Ivy Cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace when in the UK.
Both princesses’ London bases are “grace-and-favour” properties owned by the Crown, meaning that they can stay there rent-free.
As for the late Queen’s corgis, Muick and Sandy, who also lived at Royal Lodge, the Palace has confirmed that they will “remain with the family”, although it did not confirm with whom.
Moving in: William and Kate
William, Kate, George, Charlotte and Louis have officially moved house this week, trading in the four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage for Forest Lodge, both on the Windsor Estate.
The family moved to Adelaide Cottage —said to have gilded dolphins on the master bedroom ceiling— in 2022, reportedly to be closer to the late Queen, for extra privacy, and to avoid a busy school run.
But since the Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnosis, they are understood to be looking for a fresh start, choosing the Grade II-listed Forest Lodge to be their “forever home”, where they’ll live if they become King and Queen.
The timing with Andrew’s move is no coincidence. The Waleses’ move to Forest Lodge, an eight-bedroom Georgian manor, is thought to have expedited Andrew’s removal from Royal Lodge, which is less than two miles away.
The move comes ahead of schedule and, conveniently, during the children’s half-term, thanks to the efforts of the couple’s builders and staff, for whom they reportedly threw a thank you party.
Forest Lodge underwent a major £1.5 million renovation in 2001, with the couple making a few upgrades of their own before moving in.
In June, planning permission was granted for “minor internal and external alterations”, although details have not been made public.
In the months before the move, 150 acres of land surrounding the property were permanently closed off to the public for the family’s security, which locals described as a “kick in the teeth”.
The couple have not shied away from renovation projects in the past. Before Adelaide Cottage, they lived at Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace (think four-storey luxury home, not modest flat), where they completely overhauled the property before moving in.
The renovation, which reportedly cost £4.5 million, was funded by the taxpayer through the Sovereign Grant. It included replacement of the property’s heating, plumbing and electrics as well as a redesign of its layout, reducing the number of rooms from 30 to 22 and creating more open-plan spaces.
“This is the duke and duchess’s one and only official residence,” said a royal spokesperson in 2013, at the time of the move. “It is here that they plan to stay for many, many years to come.” It appears they changed their minds.
Once dubbed “the royal commune”, Kensington Palace is the perfect example of multi-generational living. Previous residents include Harry and Meghann, Princess Diana and King Charles, then the Duke of Edinburgh, and Princess Margaret.
The renovation project: Charles and Camilla
Buckingham Palace’s renovation, though, trumps all others. It’s currently undergoing a 10-year, £369 million restoration and refurbishment, which is funded by the taxpayer.
Set for completion in 2027, it includes an overhaul of the building’s outdated electrics, plumbing and heating, as well as accessibility improvements which will allow the Palace to be opened up to the public on a greater scale.
This, apparently, was needed: Barack Obama had a run-in with a mouse during a state visit in 2011, while Princess Anne had a near-miss with a falling chunk of masonry.
The royals themselves had also begun to move out of the Palace: after moving to Windsor Castle as a temporary measure during the pandemic, Queen Elizabeth chose not to return.
The Waleses have opted for Forest Lodge, while Princess Anne, who was born in Buckingham Palace, prefers her 700-acre Gloucestershire estate, Gatcombe Park, keeping a pied-a-terre in St James’s Palace as her official London residence.
Buckingham Palace has been the official London residence of the country’s Kings and Queens since 1837. But, because of the renovations, the King and Queen have broken with tradition and live at Clarence House, their long-term home.
Charles, who lived in the John Nash-designed property until age three, had the interiors updated by interior designer Robert Kime in 2002, and moved in the following year.
Once Buckingham Palace’s renovation is finished, it’s unclear what the King and Queen will do. If they choose to return to the Palace, the King intends to create a slimmed-down set-up that would see him use a “flat above the shop”, similar to how prime ministers tend to live in an apartment at 10 or 11 Downing Street.
More widely, though, it’s thought that the couple are likely to continue living at Clarence House, meaning that Buckingham Palace’s 52 newly refurbished royal bedrooms could ultimately lie empty.
