Royals

The Royals’ Cheap Rent Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be

A recent report revealed that Princess Alexandra is paying less than the cost of a Manhattan studio for her Richmond Park estate annually. What does it tell us about serving the crown?By Erin VanderhoofJune 12, 2026Princess Alexandra and her son, James Ogilvy, in front of Thatched House Lodge in Richmond on his fourth birthday in 1968.Photo by Freddie Reed/Mirrorpix/Getty Images.

Princess Alexandra, the 89-year-old first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth, has served the crown as a working senior royal for her entire adult life. Born as sixth in the line of succession—where Prince Archie of Sussex is now—she is currently 58th. Despite that, her royal status has come with one definite perk. According to a new report by the UK’s National Audit Office, Alexandra lives in Thatched Lodge House, the Grade II–listed Regency house where she moved in the 1960s, for the dirt-cheap rent of 1,500 British pounds (or about $2,000 USD) a year.

A similar figure had been circulating for years, but on June 5, the NAO released the fine print of her agreement with the Crown Estate, a real estate and investment portfolio that helps fund the British monarchy, and it’s clear that her good deal comes with lots of strings attached. Princess Alexandra has been living—and paying for upkeep on the house—since 1963, but when it comes to estate planning, she is limited in how she may pass on her lease to her two children, James and Marina Ogilvy. After Alexandra vacates the house, they will have to apply for three-year renewable tenancies at the discretion of the Crown Estate. Marina, for one, is already living in a Crown Estate–owned cottage in Windsor. She is the only non-working member of the royal family living in those properties; the rest are occupied by members of the public who secured their leases through traditional real estate brokers.

Princesse Alexandra and her husband Angus Ogilvy hold their son James at Thatched House Lodge in 1964.Photo by Keystone-France\Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.

The NAO report was the result of a months-long investigation into Crown Estate arrangements, which was prompted by public outcry over Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s cushy deal for his Windsor home, Royal Lodge. According to reports at the time, he was only paying a nominal “peppercorn” rent—that is, one dollar or less a year—to stay in the 30-room mansion that’s a quick drive from Windsor Castle, after an upfront payment of 1 million British pounds and renovation costs. The report confirms that figure, and notes that Andrew’s brother, Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, has a lease with a similar peppercorn provision. Bucking that trend, however, the Prince and Princess of Wales are paying a market rate for their Crown Estate accommodations.

But overall, the takeaway from the 2026 report might simply be that the number of “grace and favour” accommodations, the term used to describe a residence given in return for service to the Crown, has dwindled significantly from generation to generation. Following a 1993 law that changed the UK rules for renting apartments, nearly all of the Crown Estate’s previous agreements were renegotiated. Most of the grace-and-favour dwellings are going to their current or retired staff, for example. Of the 255 residential properties currently managed by the Royal Household, 145 are rented to current and retired staff, 21 to military, knights, and clergy members, and 7 to working royals.

The report also reveals that three non-working family members who have apartments paid for by the Privy Purse, the traditional name for the Royal Household’s budget. Those belong to Prince Michael and Princess Eugenie in Kensington Palace, and Princess Beatrice in St. James Palace. Then, the rest go to market-rate tenants.

The revelation that these three non-working royals had essentially free homes in central London caused controversy in the British media. By way of explanation, the NAO report notes that 63% of the accommodations owned by the Crown Estate are in areas where legislation and security concerns limit who is able to live in these spaces, so it wouldn’t necessarily be more cost-effective to put them on the open market.

A closer look at Princess Alexandra’s life and her arrangement with the Crown Estate gives a bit more context to the downsides of a deal that looks good on its surface. Born in 1936, Alexandra is the second child of Britain’s Prince George and Greece’s Princess Marina. After her father died in a tragic plane accident while serving in the Royal Air Force in World War II, King George VI made a commitment to watch over his three children. For the entirety of her 70-year reign, Queen Elizabeth made a point of keeping that commitment.

The Kents in 1954.

Evening Standard/Getty Images

The siblings and their spouses on the Buckingham Palace balcony in 1990.

Tim Graham/Getty Images

Princess Alexandra and her brother, the Duke of Kent, both served as working royals for decades, and they both appear in King Charles III’s coronation photographs in May 2023. Their brother, Prince Michael of Kent, had a career in business, but he and his wife, Princess Michael of Kent, have long lived in Kensington Palace apartments rented from the Royal Household for a discount on market rent. Of the three siblings, Alexandra has spent the largest portion of her life doing work directly for the crown.

Already a working royal, Alexandra married businessman and courtier Sir Angus Ogilvy in 1963. After their marriage, they bought a sublease on Thatched Lodge House, in Richmond Park, from its previous leaseholder. In 1971, they became the official leaseholders by signing a new 70-year lease agreement with the Crown Estate. According to the 2026 NAO report, they paid 410 British pounds a month until 1995. Then, she renegotiated her lease on Thatched Lodge House, turning it into a 150-year agreement she can pass on to one of her children. This is in addition to the St. James Palace apartment she was given in exchange for her work in support of the queen.

Of course, this comes with strings attached. As an employee of the Crown, Alexandra was limited in the private money she could earn. Nevertheless, the Ogilvys were able to live well in Thatched House Lodge. A 2005 NAO report disclosed that Alexandra and Angus Ogilvy, who died in 2004, had put a significant amount of their own money into preserving and upgrading the estate. If they hadn’t, it would have come out of the accounts of the Crown Estate, so ultimately, the cheap rent still put the estate out ahead. The 2026 report notes Mountbatten-Windsor’s lease had similar provisions. When he moved into Royal Lodge in 2003, he agreed to spend a minimum of 7.5 million British pounds on renovations. He didn’t own the house, but he had quite a bit of sweat equity in it, which helps explain why the professional administrators of the Crown Estate might have been loath to evict Andrew until the king stepped in.

To an American observer, this recent NAO report makes living in a Crown Estate property seem like getting an extremely low-interest loan to finance renovations of a historic property. This makes the privileges of being a British royal seem more stark. In exchange for the public scrutiny, you get a life of relative luxury in a historic property, but you don’t get to work privately or guarantee you can pass that wealth to your children. As Prince Harry and Meghan Markle learned in 2023, when King Charles III evicted them from their Crown Estate home, you serve and live at the pleasure of the monarch. In that light, the extended royal family’s distance from official Crown service and property makes more sense. Who wants your great-uncle to be your landlord?

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