Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor paid £302,000 as Royal Lodge lease ends
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received £302,000 in compensation after surrendering the lease on Royal Lodge, a Crown Estate spokesperson has said. The Crown Estate, the public body that manages land held in right of the Crown, confirmed the lease has now ended, in details reported on 9 October 2026. HELLO! Magazine
Royal Lodge is a Grade II-listed 30-room house in Windsor Great Park, protected for its historic and architectural interest. Mountbatten-Windsor lived there for nearly two decades with his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson.
The payment turns on a compensation clause in the lease. That clause was added because of a £7.5 million payment for refurbishment made in 2005, when the 30-room property was taken on. Under the lease terms, surrender within the first 25 years created an entitlement to compensation.
The lease ended more than 50 years early. On handing the property back, Mountbatten-Windsor paid £1.8 million in repair and restoration costs.
The outcome differs from the expectation given to Parliament in December last year. Then, the Crown Estate told MPs it was not believed he would receive compensation for early surrender once repair and restoration costs were taken into account. HELLO! Magazine
Mountbatten-Windsor has relocated to Marsh Farm, a five-bedroom house on King Charles III's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk. The £302,000 figure was reported on 9 October 2026. Coast FM
What makes this stand out is the paper trail. A large upfront refurbishment payment in 2005 wrote a future payment into the lease, and an early handover triggered the calculation. The result is a precise, dated sum set against audited repair costs, rather than an open-ended arrangement.
