Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has requested the early termination of his lease on East Lodge, a Grade II-listed thatched cottage near Windsor, the BBC reported on Tuesday, surrendering what appears to be the last remaining Crown Estate property under his control as parliamentary scrutiny of royal leasing arrangements intensifies and an inquiry into those arrangements is due to report in June.
East Lodge is a 19th-century, single-storey cottage located approximately five miles from Windsor, positioned between Windsor and Ascot in one of the most expensive residential postcodes in England. Mountbatten-Windsor has held the tenancy since February 1998, when he agreed to pay an initial annual rent of £3,500 to the Crown Estate.
The lease contained an inflation-linked escalation clause, and by the time it was renewed in 2020 the annual rent had risen to £8,047. A review conducted in late August 2025 pushed that figure to £12,922, still well below market rates in the area, where estate agents quote monthly rents of between £2,000 and £7,500 for two and three-bedroom apartments, with detached properties commanding significantly higher figures.
The property was originally the lodge associated with the much larger Sunninghill Park, which served as Mountbatten-Windsor’s primary residence before he moved to Royal Lodge in 2004. The sale of Sunninghill Park in 2007 for £15 million attracted controversy when it emerged that the buyer, the son-in-law of Kazakhstan’s president, paid £3 million above the asking price. East Lodge was not included in that transaction and remained as a separate Crown Estate arrangement. The property is believed to have been used primarily for staff accommodation throughout most of Mountbatten-Windsor’s tenancy, with the Crown Estate describing day-to-day occupancy as a private matter distinct from the formal lease.
The Crown Estate confirmed that it received a request to consider early termination of the East Lodge lease following a Freedom of Information request submitted by the BBC in January.
“Since then… we have received a request for us to consider an early termination of the lease,” the Crown Estate said in a statement. The current lease term was not due to expire until July 2027. The timetable for any early handback will be determined by the arrangements for those currently living in the property, the Crown Estate said, without specifying who is in occupation.
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The East Lodge surrender is the latest in a sequence of property withdrawals that have accompanied Mountbatten-Windsor’s comprehensive removal from public royal life since October 2025. King Charles stripped his brother of his royal titles that month and issued formal notice to surrender the Royal Lodge lease, a 75-year agreement signed in 2003 for which Mountbatten-Windsor paid £1 million upfront plus £7.5 million for refurbishments, in lieu of ongoing rent, with the lease formally due to expire on 15 June 2078. A Crown Estate assessment subsequently submitted to MPs concluded that the Royal Lodge required such extensive repairs that Mountbatten-Windsor would in all likelihood receive no compensation for the early surrender, despite technically being entitled to a payment of £488,342.21 under the lease terms.
Mountbatten-Windsor left Royal Lodge on the night of Monday, February 2, 2026, and is currently living at Wood Farm Cottage on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, the same property where the late Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, resided in his retirement. His permanent home on the estate, Marsh Farm in Wolferton, is understood to be undergoing renovation including new security infrastructure and is expected to be ready for occupation by early April. The Sandringham estate is privately owned by King Charles III, who is funding the cost of his brother’s new accommodation entirely without recourse to public funds.
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The Public Accounts Committee launched a formal inquiry into Crown Estate royal leasing arrangements following questions over the Royal Lodge deal, with the inquiry report due to be published in June 2026. Committee Chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said the scrutiny of royal leases would “aid transparency in public-interest information, as part of its overall mission to secure value for money for the taxpayer.” The inquiry’s scope extends beyond Mountbatten-Windsor’s properties alone, taking in other Crown Estate leases to members of the Royal Family including Prince Edward’s lease on Bagshot Park near Windsor and the Thatched House Lodge in Richmond, which houses Princess Alexandra and her family. The committee has the power to summon witnesses, though there is no precedent in modern times for a member of the Royal Family being required to give evidence in person to a parliamentary body.
The East Lodge development unfolds against a continuing criminal and legal backdrop. Thames Valley Police is assessing allegations, that a woman was sent to the United Kingdom by Jeffrey Epstein for a sexual encounter with Mountbatten-Windsor at Royal Lodge in 2010.
Mountbatten-Windsor has not responded to those specific allegations and has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. He was also arrested in February by Metropolitan Police officers on suspicion of misconduct in public office in connection with a separate allegation that he passed confidential government documents to Epstein. He was released on bail pending further investigation.
No completion date for the East Lodge lease termination has been confirmed by the Crown Estate. The June 2026 Public Accounts Committee inquiry report is expected to address, among other matters, the value-for-money question surrounding the East Lodge arrangement and the circumstances in which the BBC’s Freedom of Information request preceded the formal termination request.