Andrew made money subletting cottages on his rent-free estate, report shows

London: The former prince Andrew made money by subletting three cottages on the royal estate where he lived rent-free for two decades, according to a report on the royal family’s properties by Britain’s public-spending watchdog.

It also disclosed that his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, live in rent-controlled palace properties paid for by their uncle, King Charles.

The National Audit Office report released on Friday said Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor received income from renting out the cottages on the Royal Lodge estate, his home near Windsor Castle for more than 20 years. A lease for Royal Lodge, signed in 2003, shows he paid only a nominal fee, known as a “peppercorn rent”, for the property, which includes a 30-room mansion and eight cottages, three of which he was allowed to sublet.

The amount of income was not included in the report, an omission that Margaret Hodge, a Labour member of the House of Lords and former head of parliament’s public accounts committee, said was concerning.

“It’s shocking that the National Audit Office was not able to establish how much money Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor secured from the properties he let,” Hodge said.

The audit office review was carried out at the request of MPs after Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titles and evicted from Royal Lodge by his brother, the King, following revelations about his friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Mountbatten-Windsor moved earlier this year to the King’s Sandringham Estate in eastern England.

In February, the former prince, 66, was arrested and questioned by police about allegations of misconduct in public office. He has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has not been charged.

The audit office report shows that 11 working royals receive free housing within palaces in return for their official duties. They include the King and Queen Camilla, Prince William and his wife Catherine, and the King’s youngest brother, Prince Edward, and his wife Sophie.

William and Catherine also have a family home near Windsor, for which they pay £307,200 (about $581,000) in rent a year. The Telegraph reported William paid £42,000 in stamp duty for the home last month, given the rent exceeds a threshold for long-term rentals.

The rents on Eugenie’s cottage in Kensington Palace and Beatrice’s apartment in St James’s Palace are set at a portion of open-market value that has ranged in recent years between 50 per cent and 68 per cent. Both rents are paid out of the Privy Purse, the monarch’s private funds.

The sisters are not considered “w