Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor took in just over £2,000 a month in rent from three cottages on the Royal Lodge estate for a period of less than a year from late 2021, according to a letter published on Friday by the Commons Public Accounts Committee.
The figure, which is before maintenance and expenses, is the first indication of how much the former prince earned from subletting while he paid a peppercorn rent for the Windsor property. The National Audit Office reported in June that three cottages had been sublet with the income payable to him, but did not disclose the amount.
The letter came from James Chalmers, Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the King, and was published alongside the committee's report on the Crown Estate. It says that for most of the 22-year tenancy one cottage was sublet at below market rate to an in-situ tenant who worked for the Royal Family, and that three cottages were let only for an undisclosed period from late 2021.
Mr Chalmers said he had "not had access to the underlying documentation or historical records" and that the information had come from "the Household of Mr Mountbatten-Windsor". The committee did not give a total for subletting income across the tenancy, and the total cannot be calculated from the details released.
"While you kindly suggested at the hearing that you would be willing to treat this information in confidence, I can confirm that Mr Mountbatten-Windsor is content for it to be in the public domain," Mr Chalmers wrote.
The lease, signed in 2003 for 75 years, permitted subletting of up to three of the Main Gate Cottages, and the committee has not alleged any breach of its terms. Its criticism is directed at how the Crown Estate designed and managed the arrangement.
MPs recommended that all future Crown Estate leases contain a standard provision prohibiting subletting unless the landlord has given prior permission. The report found the Crown Estate "did not identify specific lessons from the Royal Lodge lease arrangement" and described it as "reluctant to discuss specifics on how it is applying lessons learned from this process or discuss what they will do differently in the future, due to the Royal Lodge lease being a product of its time".
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the committee's chair, said the inquiry "arose from a number of questions around the value for money of the financial arrangements pertaining to Royal Lodge". He added: "With the publication of our report, those arrangements are now fully public."
A Crown Estate spokeswoman said: "The Public Accounts Committee report is an important part of our accountability to Parliament. We are considering its findings and recommendations and will respond to the Committee in due course."
The committee also called on the Royal Household to adopt a consistent policy for setting rent on its residential properties, after it emerged that rents for Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, which the King pays, had been adjusted on out-of-date open market valuations for several years. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said the Household was grateful to the committee for its work on the inquiry.
Mr Mountbatten-Windsor paid £1m when he took on the lease and spent £7.5m on refurbishment. He asked to surrender it early on 30 October 2025, the same day Buckingham Palace announced the King had begun the formal process of removing his titles amid renewed scrutiny of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. He has always denied any wrongdoing.
The surrender was completed in October 2026. The Crown Estate said the dilapidations bill was £1.8m, with £302,000 of compensation due under the lease set against it, leaving a net payment of £1.5m. The BBC has reported that the King was understood to have paid the sum from his private income.
Mr Mountbatten-Windsor left Royal Lodge in February and now lives on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk. The cottages have been vacant since April.
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