PRINCE William is the King’s new landlord and is collecting hundreds of thousands of pounds in rent from his father.
Wills, 40, has taken over the Duchy of Cornwall and its £345million property portfolio including Charles’s beloved Highgrove home.
The new Prince of Wales has become his dad’s own landlord in an odd royal quirk
King Charles’s beloved Highgrove retreat is part of the Duchy of Cornwall, now held by Prince William
The new King bought Highgrove in 1980 and transformed it into a family home
The Duchy, which owns 128,000 acres of land and netted a £21million income last year, was passed from Charles to his son when he became king.
But it means the King, 73, now must pay up to £700,000 a year to honour a long lease he signed on his favourite home.
The Duchy bought Highgrove, in Gloucestershire, in 1980 and it has been since been transformed into a family home by the new King.
The property portfolio passed down to the new Prince of Wales also includes HMP Dartmoor as well as the Oval cricket ground in South London.
A source said: “The King has a long lease and pays rent on Highgrove House and surrounding land.”
The King retreated to Highgrove for a day after his mother died last month.
It is considered Charles’s favourite home and is a short drive from Queen Consort Camilla’s private house in Wiltshire.
Last April, Charles quit his Duchy Originals farm at Highgrove after 36 years, declining a new 20-year lease on the 900-acre Home Farm because he was soon to become King.
It launched the Duchy Originals food boxes now sold by Waitrose and Ocado.
Meanwhile, the King is expected to use modest living quarters at Buckingham Palace — currently undergoing a ten-year, £369million renovation — rather than live there full time.
He will also take on Sandringham in Norfolk, where, it is claimed, he plans to set up the country’s biggest organic sheep farm.
Charles and his charity The Prince’s Foundation purchased Dumfries House, in Ayrshire, in 2007, and he inherited Castle of Mey, in northern Scotland, from the Queen Mother.
He also owns a cottage in Wales and property in Romania.
